3 Quick Tips How to Avoid Disrupting your Progression
By: Yana Minkova
Tags: Startup, Management, Progress, Business, Organizational Culture

Perfection is what drives your progression into the graveyard.

After many years of being told “you have to get the perfect mark” or “you have to win or there’s no point”, my thinking no longer became about completing the needed activities in order to succeed, but just about doing it “ the perfect way”.

My mind was filled with thoughts on substitution to the point of nothing being completed except for mindless planning into the rabbit hole. “What if it’s actually better to do it this way?” “Maybe I need to use another type of resource to get a better result?”.

The planning continued and continued until months passed and no digital marketing was executed. No profit was made. No clients were found. University assignments were never handed in for fear of not getting the A+ mark. Projects were left unfinished for the fear of not getting double the profit the boss expected.

This kind of perfectionism creeps into our daily lives at some point — over thinking, over discussing, and getting nothing done.

It needs to be recognised and stopped before it snowballs into you waiting another 3 months for the “perfect moment” to start that new business, or to open up a digital marketing branch in your company you been meaning to for years, or to expect your kid to be the next Einstein in maths.

Learning is not about doing it perfect the first time around.

It is about acting, and evaluating your actions after seeing the results.

Here are 3 quick tips on how to avoid the disruption of progression in your employees, your kids, and yourself:

Your employees:

Ask your colleagues and employees for markers of completion.

- “How is it going with xyz?”

- “What did you decide is your first step to begin xyz?”

- “What have you completed so far in this first step?”

Putting an emphasis on the first step lets your colleagues and employees know there is a need for communication of progression, not an ask or awaiting for perfectionism.

With the kids:

Focus your children and teenagers on the building blocks to learning a new piece of knowledge.

When your children are doing their homework, ask them what are their learning intentions that bring them closer to learning a piece of knowledge for the week (break down what they have to learn into smaller explainable bites). Take the book from them and ask them to explain the concepts they have learned, verbally. Listen to them speak, don’t interrupt them or tell them where they are wrong. Follow this by communicating to them in a supporting and positive way what they could focus on learning/reading/remembering next.

Remember, the teacher is there to correct them. You are there to guide them and encourage them to keep trying.

With yourself:

Apply the same techniques as above to yourself.

Ask yourself what is it that you will begin in order to complete your first step in getting closer to your goal. Break everything down into work breakdown activities. One activity may require 10 sub-activities. Complete them. Weeks down the track, evaluate if those activities were beneficial when you have measurable results.

Focus on the bigger picture and the main concepts of your work to do. Define what those activities are and carry them out — whether you are right or wrong. Don’t let your brain get stuck on perfecting one idea. Focus on execution and you can tweak your approach in small bites later.