Keeping up with this month’s theme, which is managing yourself, I really want to cover today’s topic, which is The Biggest Productivity Killer in Your Business. This topic is particularly for female-run businesses because I find that this is something that I’ve experienced a lot, and comes up a lot with the women I work with.
First of all though, why is this topic important? It’s really easy when you’re working for someone else to have them tell you if you’re being productive, and what has to be done by the end of the week inside of those deadlines. It can be a lot harder when you have to set that for yourself. I think that this topic is really important to cover.
I want you guys to guess. What do you think is the biggest productivity killer in female-run businesses? Can you guess? It’s actually perfectionism. The reason why I find that this is something that comes up a lot more with women than it does men, is that growing up, men and boys are often taught to take risks; whereas, women and girls are taught a lot more to play it safe, and in turn, kind of be perfect.
This really plays out in business because business is a lot about taking risks. It’s not that women can’t do it. I see women take risks every day. Women are amongst some of the bravest people I know. It’s not that we’re not willing to take the risks. It’s more that it’s sometimes it’s a lot harder for us to be willing to take it, because we are so obsessed with playing it safe, or more importantly, we’re really obsessed with being perfect.
The reason why this really affects your ability to be productive is that in business, our business grows through trial and error. We actually are productive by putting and producing things out there into the world, getting feedback on it, and growing, innovating from that.
For example, for myself, if you guys have been following me for a while, you know, it took me a while to launch Arrow, the main reason being is I was so obsessed with it having to be perfect before I put it out there. When, in reality, again if you’ve been following me from when I first started my business til today, my business is night and day. That didn’t come from me being perfect, and waiting to be perfect to produce and launch my business. It actually came from me putting myself out there, despite the fact that of not really having a lot of clarity, getting feedback from people, and growing and innovating on that.
Even making this video, “Oh my god.” I know I bring it up all the time. I become so obsessed sometimes with not being able to go live until I’ve practiced it, and I’ve memorized everything I’m going to say, and it’s going to be perfect. In reality, it’s never going to be perfect. If I spend all of my time practicing, practicing, practicing, trying to know exactly what I want to say so my video’s perfect, I’m just wasting a lot of time and energy, and ultimately maybe even not producing content for you guys because I get so scared that if it’s not perfect, I can’t produce it.
One of things I want to share with you guys is really the way to overcome perfectionism is … I know it’s easier said than done … but you just have to do it. Physics works, or physics to stuff … and hopefully I’m getting it right because I can’t remember high school that much. Physics, I’m pretty sure, teaches us that, you know, the more momentum something has, the harder it is to be stopped.
The same applies to women and you and your business. The more that you’re willing to take imperfect action, and build that momentum of trying things, even though it’s not perfect, trying things even though maybe you’re not ready, the harder it is for you to going be stopped. Most importantly, the more your business is going to grow, and the more stuff you’re going to get done, because you start to kind of realize after a while of running your own business, nothing’s going to work out the way you want it to, nothing’s going to be perfect. You just have to do it anyway.
The thing that I really want to call to action for you guys is what task or thing in your business have you been putting off because you’re waiting for the moment to feel right, or you’re waiting to feel like the work that you’re going to produce is perfect enough to put out there? What have you have been waiting for?
I want you to take imperfect action. I want you to start building that momentum. I want you to do it today. Stop waiting to be perfect. If you’re a female entrepreneur, don’t play it safe. Perfectionism, as we all know, doesn’t exist. Just get out there. Take more risks, and be okay with imperfect action because imperfect action is ultimately what gets stuff done.
Like always, I hope you enjoyed this video. If you know any female entrepreneurs, please share this with them. It’s really important. Women sometimes are so unwilling to try new things because we do have this obsession with being perfect. That sucks because women run really awesome businesses. The more women that we can get to be willing to take imperfect action, and take that next step in their business, the better this world’s going to be. I hope you guys have a good day. I’ll see you next week.
