If You Try to Be Perfect, You Will Always Fall Short
Don’t constantly strive for perfection. You will never achieve it. It will simply waste your energy and make you miserable. Instead, focus on what is achievable.
Sharpen your best skills and qualities so you can showcase them to clients and prospects. Practice them over and over until you get things right every time. Don’t dwell on what you’re not so good at. Here are some ways to forget perfection and strive for excellence.
Identify your strengths and weaknesses
Identify and accept your good qualities. Are you a great communicator? Are you passionate? Are you a good listener? Do you get on well with people, do they like and trust you? Are you smart? What previous successes no matter how small can you draw on?
By taking the time to examine your strengths and weaknesses you’ll realize that your strong qualities outweigh the bad ones.
Decide to become more optimistic
Your mission is to become your own biggest cheerleader so avoid naysayers and ignore negative people. If you radiate positivity, your prospects and clients will feel this too. Maintain a positive self-image – look the part and you’ll feel the part. Engage others with eye contact. Listen, smile, stand tall and speak clearly – remember that what you say is of the utmost importance.
Use the principles of positive psychology by looking at things from two sides of the coin. If something you consider to be bad happens – then look at how you can use it for good. The more you focus on these kinds of positive thoughts, the more likely it is you’ll embed them as beliefs.
Celebrate short-term wins
To succeed in this business you need to develop self-confidence. This is best achieved by seeing your progression in terms of baby steps towards your goals. Over time you will be rewarded with big gains. See your working life as a series of victories no matter how small and build on them. Once you’ve learned to celebrate your personal victories you’ll start to feel more optimistic and in control.
Forget perfection – develop consistency
Staying physically fit is a long-term commitment. It means going to the gym even when you don’t have 110 percent in the tank. The same applies to your career. You need to turn up at the office and give your best every day no matter what and carry out work-related tasks to the best of your ability.
By doing the same things consistently you will grow your business in a predictable pattern. Consistency allows for measurement, so you can check you’re hitting your goals. Consistency also gives you accountability and helps establish your reputation. People will learn they can rely on you. If you maintain the same demeanor and re-iterate your message, clients will eventually pay attention to what you say.
Give yourself permission to make mistakes
We all make mistakes but so long as you always see yourself as a work in progress rather than the finished article, this won’t give you undue stress. Learn from your mistakes and move on.
Don’t let fear of failure deter you
Perfectionists often fear not being able to do things perfectly which leads to procrastination. Fear of not being able to deliver unachievable results often causes them to completely avoid the task at hand.
If you find yourself avoiding prospecting because you fear you’re falling short, then stop having unrealistic expectations and focus on doing the right thing. Success is based on taking the right actions, i.e. getting on with the task at hand, and getting feedback so you can improve. It’s not about getting things right every single time. Achieving most things to an excellent level will lead to greater success than doing one thing perfectly in any case.
Anyone can achieve excellence
Striving for perfection will leave you demoralized. Striving for excellence on the other hand will motivate you. Try and become a little bit better at what you do every day. Focus on what’s within your reach rather than on what’s missing between where you are and the point of perfection. Life’s about the journey, not the destination, and excellence is a never-ending journey.
So long as you constantly strive to do the ‘right thing’ rather than all things right, you have every chance of great success, and your life will become more rewarding and fulfilling.
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