how do i overcome Perfectionism ?

you are doomed

deadlines ..as perfect as something is by the deadline is how perfect it will be .

Hey Joshua!

Man, do I know how you feel! I used to be, such a big perfectionist I wouldn't achieve anything!

I actually wrote a thread about it here: Perfection is developed over time..

The best piece of advice I ever received on the subject was "It doesn't need to be this complicated, you're making it harder than it need be"

Now, whenever I feel like I'm over-perfecting something, I say that statement out loud.

I agree with @Odahh, deadlines help a lot too!

Best of luck and if you want to talk more about it, don't hesitate to send me a message

Have an awesome day!

- Joe Crosbie,

Hi Joshua,

Ship Seth Godin talks about shipping a bunch. Publish, create, ship. Provide a service.

Getting real world experience is the quickest way to overcome the fear of failure - aka perfectionism.

I just shot 3 videos. 1 more in the chamber. When I publish each of these today on my blog along with 1-2 text posts I will have 5 to 6 shipped, published posts for public consumption.

Any fear of failure, or criticism, dies when you get yourself out there in front of your target market, or the general public for that matter.

Same deal with my recently released eBook. I published it within a week or so after working with my web developer/designer. Easy peasy.

Hit the ground running. Study many of the richest, happiest people on earth. This crowd reins in their perfectionism by shipping, tweaking, failing, learning and redirecting. If they did it, you can do.

Remind yourself: fear is holding you back, masked as perfectionism by your ego Fear is conquered by taking freeing, highly uncomfortable steps, like creating, publishing, serving, etc.

All the best!

For me, it's hard for perfectionists to let some imperfections go. I suggest to rest and let things go at least one whole day once a week. Let somebody else do those work and just relax and divert your attention.

If you enjoy doing things in great detail then it's not an issue. It is an issue if you're bothered by it. Richard Branson once apparently said...

Successful People Start Before They Feel Ready.
http://jamesclear.com/successful-peo...hey-feel-ready

I'm sure you could adapt it to your situation. In other words, stop it (your behaviour). Make it really good and push it out of the way. Perfect is never going to happen. Don't ship stuff with mistakes or errors but if going into amazing detail bothers you - just stop being like that. Make a decision to improve and stop being manic about irrelevant details.

you are afraid to fail.

Ask yourself, what is the worst thing that can happen if you took a particular action? It's usually a small fraction of what you think. When you discover you live little to lose, you'll go forward.

Actually paralysis by analysis costs you a lot! So attach ongoing costs for doing nothing, because they exist.

If you want to be successful, in many cases, good enough is good enough. That should be part of your working approach. Perfectionism is just a way to set yourself up for failure from the start.

Yep there's that old phrase that 'Great is the enemy of good.' Same as everyone else says really, there's nothing wrong with chasing perfection, as long as you achieve something along the way. Don't hold off launching, just do it, then refine.

I was also a perfectionist.

This made me waste 1 year in my first year of IM.

Then finally decided to release a product even though i was not quite satisfied with it. And surprise surprise. Everyone loved it.

Money loves speed. Create tons of stuff.. The world wants what's in you.

You can always optimize/enhance the products later.

Cheers,

C.G.

I know how you feel
Most of the time it is fear. Are you afraid to fail?

An action plan and deadlines are always a good idea.
Seth Godin is a good read! Eat that frog - do all important things first!
Build the whole idea/concept (with drafts) and then tune it afterwards.

I guess you also want to be in control of everything. Decide in which part you are best e.g. marketing, concept and text and give the rest ...design, programming to a freelancer.
Just do it and finish it (deadline). Ask a friend what he/she thinks.
Things change, so you have to change it anyway (but at some time later).

Read successful stories, like Mr Bill posted it (thank you) and network with others.
You are not alone! Others have the same "problem" and have "finished" and launched/realised their ideas.

It's really easy. Here's what I do...

You change your method completely, because you're doing things the wrong way around.

Think of it as how you'd build a huge building. Look at various architecture... Aren't they works of art?

The huge misconception is that diamonds are produced in a single try. That's wrong. Rome wasn't built in a day. Neither are diamonds in a week. It takes many, many tries before carbon turns into diamonds. It took Thomas Edison many, many materials before he eventually found tungsten for the light bulb.

Use what I call the Branching Method.

Steps:
(1) Write out an outline - this will consist of all the major themes of your product. The gears that have to be there in order for everything to work. At this point, leave them minimally viable - the least state possible.

(2) For each point, you will then enlarge the point from a sentence into a paragraph, for example. You will try to inflate it and make it better in that aspect.

(3) LAUNCH. It doesn't matter whether your product is good or not - At this point, just launch it. As long as the product has a "theme" that which it is consistent to... It is sell-able because it already has a message to tell the buyer.

(4) Alpha-versions, beta-versions, Release candidates. These are terms used for software when they are launched, version after version. Similarly, you do it this way.

(a) Update the product by filling in more information into these points.
(b) Send your past customers the link to the new product.
(c) You can even raise the price-point after adding more - you can use this as a form of exclusivity in marketing.

What's important? Telling yourself to stop minding your fears so much and just charge head on. The only way through hell is through it.

It's not that hard. We make stories out of our own circumstances, don't we? And we're normally really good storytellers.

- James