The Danger of the Comfort Zone (and the Curse of Perfectionism)

The problem with perfectionists, is that we never ship. We research, develop,  learn, practice, plan…but we never quite find that last piece of the puzzle, we never finish what we started, we never ‘ship’.

I came across this term in Graham Allcott’s book: How to be a Productivity Ninja. It’s the idea of making sure whatever you are working on is good quality and delivers on your promise, but making sure you finish it when its good enough rather than carrying on until its perfect. He talks about the importance of ‘shipping’ – of getting a product to market, to the client, to the customer. Because if you don’t ship, you don’t have a business – you simply have a potentially very expensive and time-consuming hobby!

I’m a massive advocate of doing what you love and loving what you do. I also believe that making money from something you’re passionate about is such a huge confidence boost that its crucial to ‘ship’ as soon as possible so you start to see some returns straight away. Otherwise you risk losing momentum and energy for your project.

I wrote a post recently about the lovely Anna of Mother Pukka after hearing her speaking about her experiences as a vlogger and on Instagram. One of the pieces of advice she mentioned was that its the persistent ones on social media that tend to succeed simply because they keep going; they don’t give up. I think often we can do SO much work on our ambitions, our goals, our ideas – but if we fail to finish, fail to ship, we fall at the very last hurdle. We need to be persistent, right up until we succeed!

Interestingly, its often the very last step that is the hardest too. That’s the step that takes us out of our comfort zone, into reality. The one that’s about getting seen and delivering on the goods you’ve been promising. So how do you know what that is? I’ll give you a clue.

Its the thing that scares you most.

Its what you’ve been holding back on, reining in and putting off. Its also probably the thing you  most need to do in your business next, and the thing that will make it real. Its the 20% of effort that will get you  80% of your results. Sorry… but its true!

In the interest of helping you take a first step out of your comfort zone, I’m inviting you to take up a free Coaching Consultation call with me. During the 30-minute phone call, I’ll be using coaching questions and methods to walk you through your ideas and help you to:

• Gain clarity on your business ideas and goals
• Identify any blockers to success, and look at what’s holding you back
• Figure out the steps you need to take to get unstuck and move forward right away

Does that sound helpful? I hope so. It likely sounds a little scary too – I’ll be asking you questions, holding you to account, figuring out what’s really going on…. but that’s all good! I’m not here to judge, but simply help. If you want to it’s also an opportunity to find out more about how I could help you with the coaching I offer – but that’s entirely up to you, this is a no-strings-attached, totally free session.

If you’d like to take up your complimentary spot you can book in here, at a time that suits you. I look forward to hearing from you!