Self Sabotage, Perfectionism plus Goal Setting

Over the last couple of newsletters, we’ve been looking at this theme which is essentially “How do we sabotage ourselves when setting goals?” And even achieving our goals. So, the first week we looked at the excitement of goal setting. Where a goal gets out of hand and grows and grows and grows until we become overwhelmed and end up doing nothing.

And then we looked at the flip side of that, we’ve started a goal and we’re looking at perfectionism and how trying to hold ourselves up to this standard that we’ve set ourselves often backfires on us and the whole goal can crumble around this perfectionism. So, let’s have a look at, what if we’re not starting a goal this week? How come, there’s something we want to do but we can’t get going? And this is based on this idea of perfectionism.
We tend to want to do everything really well the very first time we do something. And that tends to be an adult thing more than anything. So, let’s say something that potentially might upset one or two of you. And it’s this, if something is worth doing, it is worth doing badly. I know! If you’re willing to do something badly, can you improve upon it? Yes, you can! If you’re waiting to do something perfectly, will you ever improve upon it? No.

Perfectionism & Mistakes

So, start making mistakes. Be willing to make mistakes that’s how we grow. Intellectually, we know this, but to do it is often hard. And that’s holding ourselves up to this high standard again. Now, we can take this lesson from many areas. You look at a lot of tech companies. They bring out version one, which is okay, not quite there yet. They get some feedback. They bring out version two which has all the improvements. And they get some more feedback and then version three. And then before you know it, they’ve got a great piece of software, great piece of hardware.

Writers do the same thing. The secret to great writing is to be willing to write badly. Because if you’re willing to write badly, you’ve got something to work on. You’ve got something to give yourself feedback on and then you can improve upon it and improve upon it. So, whatever you’re doing if you’ve been putting it off, unconsciously thinking that you need to be able to do it before you can do it.

You have permission, not that you need my permission, but you have permission to do it badly. Because we need you to be the very best that you can be. Go out and achieve your goals. Start off badly and quickly improve upon it. Give me examples where you started something, you got some feedback, and I’d love to hear your stories.

And there has been a great response to the NLP Practitioner dates and the NLP Master Practitioner dates for next year. So, I’m thinking to give you a little nudge in the right direction, if you contact me with your interest, I have a very special discount for you.

Okay guys, until next time. Have an outrageous week and I’ll see you soon.

John “achieving goals” Cassidy-Rice and the NLP excellence team.

Book of the week: Made to Stick