Aiming for perfection used to hold me back from speaking up, sharing what I was thinking, and pursuing what I was interested in. I didn’t want to be wrong, ill-informed, or challenged.
Deep down I had a sense that I was seeking something impossible. But I still rationalized that I had to seek out perfection in order to be successful and, in turn, to find true happiness.
My first business venture in 2012 required a mindset change. What inspired me was a quote I captured in high school and rediscovered in my childhood bedroom the month before I started the new firm:
“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Treating a fledgling design firm as an experiment was challenging. It defied the dream engrained in me since architecture school: to run your own practice until you retire or die. It was conflicting and difficult to think that I might not be doing this for the next 40 years.
But I continued to remind and repeat “this is an experiment” to myself, especially as challenges with setting up a new business arose.
The mantra released the pressure on myself to achieve perfection. Instead I channeled my energy towards evaluating my activities, choices, and decisions as something to learn from every day.
After nearly five years since I decided to change my mindset, I continue to remind myself daily to treat what I’m doing as an experiment.
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Through this constant practice, I feel lighter and less critical of myself.
I see rejection as an opportunity to improve what I put out into the world.
I take no’s to my offers as getting closer to understanding my value and discovering my ideal clients.
I make time for reflection and evaluation in my plans in order to achieve my long-term mission.
All in all, experimenting makes me look forward to my workday–and dare I say, more content with what I create.
Now your turn to try out this mantra. Say this out loud:
My work is an experiment. My life is an experiment. The more experiments I make the better.
How do you feel? What comes to mind?
Image source: Drew Hays for Unsplash
I’ve been treating my work as a bit tooo much of an experiment a bit tooo long.
Really great point, Bryan. A couple ideas for when experiments seem to take on a life of their own:
1. Create a hypothesis for each experiment, just like a scientist. What do you want to test? What do you want to learn? How is it supporting a bigger question or goal in your life?
2. Set a clear boundary for the experiment. Is it a certain number of days or a particular date? Is it until you reach a certain point with it? The more specific you can make your boundary and have a definitive milestone to check in, the less it will drag on and on.
3. Make time to reflect on the experiment before the next thing. What lessons did you learn? How can you improve? What did you accomplish?
Hope this helps!
Exactly what I needed to hear! Thanks, Katie!