There are two contradicting ideas when it comes to business. The first idea is to always put out your best work. The second is that done beats perfect. The two philosophies work for different people in divergent ways, but for me, it’s that second statement that I often hear myself repeating while I work on my business.
See, life happens. Take this post for example. Instead of having time to write over the weekend while I was transiting through two different airports, aspects of traveling demanded my attention (hello allergen friendly food scavenger hunt!). This caused a cascade effect on my planned productivity. Truth is, this blog post was written the morning it was planned to go out.
In the spirit of done beats perfect, this post happened anyway. It was still written, still edited, and still put out there. It lacks the “breathing” time I like to use to give myself a fresh perspective when proofing. I believe it’s the best work I have at the moment, rather than the “perfect” work.
There are a great many aspects in which things happen in my business before they’re perfect. See, if every single thing waited until it was my definition of perfect, nothing would ever leave my laptop. Instead, things are completed and revised until I’m comfortable that it is my best work available in the moment.
The two dueling philosophies at times do cause issues. However, understanding where those issues come from allows me to work through it. Ultimately, I’ve settled on done beats perfect as a life philosophy. It really does help me work with the instilled perfectionism hanging around, and in turn, that philosophy helps me grow my business in unexpected ways.