Growing up, I had the voice of my father in the back of my mind. “If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well”. Great motto for getting things done WELL. I’ve ploughed along my whole life getting stuff done. Giving it my all to do it WELL. He was a bit of a perfectionist and worked very hard. So much of his worth ethic, I’ve loved, it’s been very helpful.
But heck, have also discovered, it was exhausting and frankly in business, I discovered it didn’t help, when I’d come to a screeching halt on things. Stonkered, absolutely stonkered, because I didn’t know what to do next.
Or I would do everything else to avoid doing that one thing…
Or worse still I would keep at the one thing, going over and over it, to make sure it was done REALLY REALLY WELL.
Then I didn’t go anywhere very fast… at all.
In fact, it felt like spinning wheels in the ute up the back paddock again, except nowdays I live at the beach. Nowhere near the bush.
So what do you do when you start spinning in circles?
Going around and around on things?
Are you a master at perfection, procrastination or finding 100 other things to do…
You’re REALLY busy doing other stuff.
BUT you’re not getting the stuff done that really matters… MORE.
Heck, even when intelligence tells you, and you know, it’s important, if fact, really BLOODY important, yet… you still keeping spinning in circles?
Here’s a wee tactic I share with clients to overcome doubt and procrastination:
1. Acknowledge the Doubt or Fear
Yep, mostly when it’s about perfection or procrastination there is a variation of fear that will be stopping you, fear it won’t be good enough, liked, valued, appreciated etc. So what is your fear of? Ask yourself that firstly.
2. Give it a number out of 10
Make 0 the least / 10 the greatest amount of the fear. Where do you sit on the scale?
3. Now ask yourself “Why does it matter?”
Why is it important to you, to your team and/or for the business? Find 3 simple words that matter
i.e. Progress (better than Perfection), Teamwork (better than Independence), Growth (better than Stagnation) Pick words that resonate and have the ultimate meaning of importance for you.
and your business.
4. What would you have as a result of actually taking action?
Literally…. What would you achieve?
Make a list. If you took action – what would you have as a result?
Be specific and make sure there is a difference between what you’d HAVE here (Question 4) and what it’s FOR (Question 3)
i.e. A day off a week, do school pick-up’s 3 x per week, someone else doing particular tasks on the team, new source of revenue, new clients onboard, a book published, run my own events, exercise 2x weekly, tripled our revenue, improved social media strategy.
Make a list – pick your thing personally, professional and for the business that you could achieve if you took action. Really get the pen out. Please write not simply read. It’s all about implementation rather than information. Stop procrastinating now too.
5. Now how could you make it happen?
Rather than running the old procrastination strategy, of doing everything else first, running and hiding, avoiding it, doing the filing, you know the same old habits you’ve been doing for a while now…What could you do instead?
What are all the different ways?
i.e. Phone a friend, ask for help, get a VA, go onto Upwork, hire a new team member, exit an existing one, take a look at your hiring technique. The Sky is the limit here, so go crazy, write down all ways you could tackle the thing, that thing or things you’d love to stop procrastinating on.
Maybe it’s not about the people stuff in your business, it’s maybe the admin or finance or creativity and innovation. Is it a system thing or people thing? Get people onto it to help you fix the system.
Once you’ve got your list with lots of ways to make things happen. Look at the tactics that resonates with you, look at the one that scare the ‘you know what’ out of you and look at the one that’s super comfy.
Now… grab a coloured pen and find 1 or 2 ways (tactics or strategies for you and the business) that are somewhere in between, not way out of your comfort zone or not too comfy either, that’s boring (and frankly, you’ll probably continue to phaff around.
If you need to re-look at that list.
Now for the final question…
6. Who can help you make it happen?
So many of us independent, strong and driven women have built up this mindset of “If you want a job done well, do it yourself”, another of my dad’s cracking pearls of wisdom. It’s created havoc with my ability for learning to delegate over the years.
But here’s the thing, you need to learn to delegate.
Seek out help, ask for it.
It takes a village to raise a child. So too, to build a business. A thriving one at that.
So who is on your team and helping you rock and roll?
Write that list now, write everyone down…..
Once you have the list down, ask yourself, now who is missing?
What piece of expertise or talent do I need for our success.
Who already knows it, whose done it and done it well (or continues to).
Shoot me a message, comment or email. Let me know what big project you’re tackling and which of these points resonates and helps you the most with overcoming the circle work.
It’s time now for some massive action and momentum.
Here’s to a leading a high performing team and thriving business.
Genevieve
