Iteration over Perfection 1.0
January 2020
The Art and Importance of Small Talk
January 2020Iteration over Perfection 2.0
In the preceding post, I mentioned how my mindset changed, to the above quote, over the last quarter of 2019. This came through several TED Talks and through reading one of the most powerful books of all time – Creative Confidence. It is a masterpiece because it mobilized me – both literally and figuratively. I realized:
The need for action is widely read, but poorly understood.
Being a fan of motivational quotes (as you can tell 😀), I previously saved every image that spoke about action to my cell phone. This was the only action I consistently took, and is probably the only reason why it never caused any difference in my routine life. I learned that:
Impactful change begins with a step towards action and a shift towards the right mindset!
Once I took the practice of action to heart, I made it a point to stop severe procrastination and start doing. This led to miracles. Why? Because by doing, I already conquered the biggest, and perhaps the most difficult, obstacle, which is:
The fear of the first step! This is the single most paralyzing factor of ANY action.
Okay. So, up to this point I have learned how to begin AND how to begin early.
The next step was to simply continue. Now that I already gathered the momentum to act with an early beginning, I had the added advantage of securing more time to finish. This indeed felt liberating! It gave me opportunities to try and reset for the next try. Allowing just a few extra iterations to myself made my deliverable far more superior, well-thought out and relevant than had I tried to achieve perfectionism in one shot.
3 Comments
This is such a helpful mentality! Another author shared the line, “think progress, not perfection.” Great advice that I hadn’t quite applied to my career search, but this post really helped me draw a strong connection.
I especially love your point about taking the first step to over come the paralysis that prevents us from beginning a great journey!
Procrastination comes naturally but over the years the importance of taking that first step or contributing efforts to achieve something you want is so much more rewarding than the result itself. I love that you alluded to our fear of taking that first step because we don’t know what’s next. As rightly pointed out- It’s to constantly iterate. I love quotes too and one that has always helps me in uncertain situations is : Action brings clarity.
Loved what you said about leveraging momentum. It is so easy to take the first step, find temporary gratification and not experience the long term benefits from whatever action was action. For me, this was a great reminder to use momentum to my advantage and to seek out the joy that comes from iteration.
Also, thanks for the book recommendation! I’m adding Creative Confidence to my list.