Perfection is your enemy. You will never feel 'ready'

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Last week my episode on the Speaking and Communicating Podcast was published. I spoke to Roberta about everything from overcoming my fear of public speaking to the advice I gave to a coaching client who had a big event to speak at when they had a fear of public speaking. Give the episode a listen:

Perfection is your enemy. You will never feel 'ready'

You will never feel ready. It is a harsh reality that you need to face. Whether it is your goals, public speaking or starting a business you will never be ready. Uncertainty is something that you need to get used to, and fast.

Maybe you can get to a point when you feel like you have a complete roadmap to implement but how long will that take? And then when you are feeling ready the landscape has changed and your roadmap does not uncover all of the answers.

Perfectionism is the issue here. The idea of being perfect or having the complete finished package does not really exist. Maybe you don’t want to fail or to get things wrong, but the reality is that provides learning opportunities for you. Whether it is speaking, pursuing your goals or business you need to get used to taking action when you are unclear on what the road ahead looks like.

Speaking

Most expectations you hold for yourself are driven by external factors – mainly what other people think. The same goes for speaking. You try to be the perfect speaker, having to get our delivery right, tell compelling stories that engage every single audience member whilst also adding value to their lives. Sure, this can be something to strive for, but this is actually a limitation for you.

You don’t get good at anything by waiting to be perfect. You get good with intentional practice or repetitions. So how do you start with those repetitions?

The nano speech.

Your simple and quick open, body, close structure that you can use in every day conversations or to deliver a presentation. Find opportunities to deliver nano speeches daily. Start small with a 10 second burst. Then scale up to 1 minute. Then change the environment, then the topics you are comfortable speaking about. The key with the nano speech is starting where you are comfortable with it.

Nano speeches are your roadmap out of perfection because during a conversation nobody knows you are practicing public speaking. The stakes are low and you should use that to your advantage.

You will never be the perfect speaker. It doesn’t exist. But you can become a great speaker.

Your goals

As an ambitious person you probably want to change the world. As a result you set big hairy audacious goals. But what actions are you actually taking to achieve that goal? And that is usually the issue. No action is being taken. You are using the goal as a vulnerability shield.

You are setting a goal so big that you know you can’t achieve in the short term and you use it as an excuse not to take action on your goals. A common one is writing a book which seems like a huge task and people rarely get round to it. Writing a book means putting yourself out there in the world. It is being vulnerable. So your large goal which sounds admirable and impressive to others is acting as a shield for you to be vulnerable. The fact it is a big goal is your way of not taking action right now and kicking the can down the road.

Your solution: Break the goal into smaller chunks. This might sound obvious but you need to find the clear path. If it is the book example it is easy to figure out that if you write every day you will get your book written. You don’t need to write a chapter a day, but start with an achievable target. For example 500 words a day for 100 days will get you a book draft.

Stop using big goals as an excuse not to take action. You won’t find the perfect roadmap but you always need to make progress. Small action every day is way better than a big action once. Make it achievable, make it sustainable and make it your reality.

Business

What business are you going to build? What income streams are you going to generate? How will you acquire your customers? Scary questions and a harsh reality. A common approach is to look at these questions and decide that’s something for your future self to figure out. Usually you think that comes after getting the perfect idea for your business.

Your ‘perfect idea’ won’t come. If you are waiting for a wave of inspiration to hit you without taking action and spotting gaps in the market you won’t ever reach your business goals. Figure out your intersection of:

• Your passions

• Your skills

• What people will pay you for

When you align these three categories you might have something you can drive forward into a product or service. You won’t have all the answers but step by step you can get to a place where you have your business set up, with a product or service that people want to buy.

Figuring out what people will pay for is the hardest part. But you can use social media to help you out there. Search for things you are both passionate about and highly skilled at. Note down peoples pain points, questions, frustrations and in there you have some market research about what people want. This might be your first step to start making progress.

In speaking, in your goals and in business, the key principle you need to keep in mind is ‘progress over perfection’.

Actionable takeaways

• Use the nano speech to start gaining the relevant practice you need to become a great speaker. Ditch the idea of being the perfect speaker and focus on getting the reps in.

• Find the clear path to take action on your goals. Stop using perfectionism as a vulnerability shied by breaking things down and figuring out the next specific action you can take to move forward.

• Progress over perfection. Don’t kick the can down the road on the hard questions you need to answer. That is holding you up. Let go of finding the perfect idea. Instead go and find out what people want - your business idea will form when you understand the market.

That's all for today!

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Liam Sandford

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