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How to Beat Perfection Paralysis

Do you have a sales and marketing related project you’ve long intented to implement? I do, lot’s of them in fact.

Frankly, my good intention ofter withers on the vine because I bump up against an invisible wall.  Understanding why reveals a valuable sales and marketing lesson.

You see, perfection paralysis or its close cousin, analysis paralysis, is a common malady among sales people and solopreneurs like me.

It is dangerous because it afflicts in two ways; once because it keeps people from risking or experimenting, and second because of the psychological toll it takes to carry a list of would haves, could haves, and should haves.

Do you ever experience perfection paralysis or analysis paralysis? Is there an important project, large or small, business or personal, that you are grappling with yet hardly closer to executing than when you first conceived it?

Here is what I do or try to do in such circumstances.  I ask my self four questions:

1. Do I clearly see the value, or believe in the importance of completing the project I’m considering?
2. What’s stopping me from breaking down my task into manageable chunks, and executing piece by piece?
3. If the “aim” in “ready-aim-fire” is interminable, what’s the worst that can happen if I change the order to “ready- fire-aim”, and make adjustments on the fly?
4. Can I manage the process instead of the outcome by setting deadlines for each of the manageable chunks I’ve carved out of the larger project?  When – not if – I miss a deadline, I re-set and do it again.

Asking questions, moving intelligently, gathering data, and weighing options are all valid reasons to hold off, but they also hide in their legitimacy the seeds of perfection paralysis or analysis paralysis.

Remember, Voltaire’s wise words: “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”

Here’s to getting out of the gate!