Words that Work

Imagine how much more of your brilliance you could share if you released it when it was good enough. Count the hours and the days and the months and maybe even the years that you may have held on to your wisdom because you claimed it was not good enough.

My background includes many years working with academics and engineers in which research papers, ships and airplanes, and software products required tons and tons of review cycles and multiple levels of testing were released only upon being declared perfect. And thank goodness for that.

I carried that same standard and operated according to it with great fidelity in the less precise field of human dynamics and the sometimes messy world of emotions doing life coaching, business coaching, and organizational consulting. Now I’m learning to adopt good enough as the standard to which I was reintroduced and that was reinforced at Lisa Sasevich’s Speak to Sell program.

What does good enough sound like? Perfect to those listening to you or to those with whom you are engaged. Good enough is perfect in that moment because each moment at the time is perfect. Even imperfection is perfect.

Build the plane while you’re flying rather than design, develop, build, test, integrate, test some more, tweak and then some. Build the bridge as you walk on it. First jump off the cliff and then add wings.

The plane ride, the walk on the bridge, and standing at the edge of the cliff can initially be terrifying as it was for me when I announced to 400 people that I was offering my unique branded system without having fully designed the program. My limbs and voice were quivering along with the microphone I was holding. Thrill quickly replaced the terror.

Thrill replaces terror as good enough replaces perfect. Knowing you’ve helped some, imagine how you’d feel helping more and more people. You can with good enough.

And, still sensing the tug to reread and revise, I am releasing Good Enough—The New Perfect.

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