How to Take Imperfect Action to Improve Your Life

I know what it feels like to want to get everything just right, lined up just perfectly, before you take that first big step.

What if I screw up? What if I look stupid? What if I FAIL?

I get it. It’s scary, isn’t it?

Who enjoys screwing up, looking stupid, failing?

Not me.

But what I like even less is the thought of not going anywhere, staying stuck, making exactly zero progress toward my goals because I was waiting for perfection.

Perfectionism can be paralyzing. It can be our worst enemy.

Let me tell you something. The perfect time is never going to come when you’re building your STR business.

If you wait until things are perfect before you start, forget it. You’ll never start.

Taking that one action can be a snowball with a whole bunch of other actions following. But, if you never take that one step, you’ve got nothing to work with.

Think of a writer who doesn’t want to put any words on a page until they’re perfect. How can you edit a blank page? You can’t. You need to put some words down, no matter how awful they are, and then you can edit and revise them until they become what you want them to be.

One recent example from my life is when I decided to go LIVE on my Cashflow Diary Facebook page every single day for an entire month.

If I would’ve waited until I could be guaranteed smooth sailing, absolute perfection, I’d still be waiting.

Instead, I just went for it.

And a whole lot of stuff went wrong. Like a lot lot lot of stuff. What’s the Law of Nature that says that everything that could possibly go wrong is probably going to go wrong?

Yeah, that’s what happened to me.

Technical difficulties. Late starts. Programs not working like I wanted them to. Distractions and obstacles. People having to cancel their interviews.

Oh, and that pesky little pandemic thing.

But I didn’t let it stop me from forging ahead anyway. And I don’t regret it for a minute.

So, my actions were imperfect. So, a whole bunch of people got to witness the fact that I didn’t have everything lined up exactly how I needed it to for everything to go exactly as planned.

So, they got to see that I’m human.

Is that a bad thing? No, it’s not.

And you know what? It can actually be inspiring for others to see that you’re not afraid of messing up, that you go for it no matter what.

Done is better than perfect.

I’ve always talked about failing forward. Taking imperfect action that leads to “failure” is a perfect opportunity to do just that.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried things and done them imperfectly. I’ve screwed up a lot, but I have learned so much.

You do something imperfectly. Mess up. Try again. Tweak it, work on it, improve it. Try again. And again. And again.

Where can you improve? How can you make your imperfections a little closer to perfect?

JUST DO IT already!

I wrote a blog post recently about the growth mindset. If you read it, you know that someone with a growth mindset believes that when she makes a mistake, that doesn’t mean she’s failed, she’s done, it’s over. It just means she has an opportunity to process those mistakes, learn from them, correct them, and continue on the path to achieving her dreams.

I’m okay that I don’t know stuff right now, because I believe I can learn. I believe I can improve. I believe I can get really, really good.

I’ve also talked about the four levels, or stages, of learning. We all go from unconsciously incompetent (I don’t know what I don’t know) to consciously incompetent (I know what I don’t know) to consciously competent (I know what I know, but I’ve still got to focus on it to get it right) to unconsciously competent (I can do this with my eyes closed).

The only way you’re ever going to get to that fourth stage—or even the third stage—is to take imperfect action.

What is ONE imperfect action you can take today?

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