Synchronicity is an inexplicable and profoundly meaningful coincidence that stirs the soul and offers a glimpse of one’s destiny.
-Phil Cousineau
Do you ever hear or read something that you are just like “wow, that’s exactly what I needed!”? I was at the gym this morning and listening to the Goal Digger Podcast and had that experience. Here’s the link. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-goal-digger-podcast/id1178704872?i=1000448353455 (I’m pretty technologically challenged and can’t figure out how to just use the word ‘here’ with the link. I’ll have to figure that out later. 😬) You should give it a listen, but for me what stood out was starting before you’re ready. I’m sure you can figure out why it hit home. I am still trying to figure out exactly what this business looks like for me and where I would like it to go. I’ve figured out some pieces that I don’t want. (I’ll take every piece of clarity I can get!) It was important for me to hear about taking imperfect action and moving the needle forward every day. The struggle to remove the perfectionist in me is HARD! I just hear that critical voice in my head yammering, “It’s not worth doing if it isn’t going to be right.” And it’s not like I plan to just start half-assing everything, but if I waited until I was ready to start, who knows if I would. I’m learning to accept that I can figure it out as I go and the more I do, the more clarity will come. I am 100% overwhelmed with all the ideas I have in my head. I’m a pretty focused, driven girl so it is an unusual place for me to not know what to do and be paralyzed with information overload. At the same time, I feel this sense that it is unfolding as it should and the more I can let go of controlling how it will happen the better it will be.
I don’t want to turn this into a journal entry that’s of no use to you, so I’ll get on with it. Here is the takeaway message for this post. Imperfect action is better than no action. I think most of us, myself included, learn the quickest from trial and error. Just try and worst-case scenario, you learn something. It’s funny as a mother I tell my kids things like this all the time. But then somehow, don’t believe it’s true for me. Makes no damn sense. By starting before you are ready, and making small incremental steps forward, you are making progress. If you made a 1% increase every day towards a goal, at the end of the year, you’ll be 365% better than today. It’s a dramatic difference that you barely noticed in your day to day life.
I learned recently the best way to study for a test is actually taking several tests. You read the material one time, then test yourself on the information. Rereading material is the least effective way of remembering information because it gives you a false sense of comfort. You can recall reading the text, therefore you think you know the information, even though you are just remembering the act of reading it. The research showed your brain remembers more effectively by getting something wrong and then finding the correct answer. No one wants to be wrong. It’s an uncomfortable feeling that our egos don’t enjoy. It makes sense that you would remember the correct answer because you wouldn’t want to be wrong again. Whether in academics or in life, it seems that learning from your mistakes and taking imperfect action, is the way to effectively learn and grow.
I’m pretty exhausted so I’m going to let this be short and sweet. In the spirit of meeting myself where I’m at, I just wanted to get this imperfect post out there.
