Earlier this week I saw one of those motivational-type posts from someone I follow and respect on here and it made me stop and think about the problem with taking these in isolation.

In this case it was highlighting the difference between a mindset of aiming for perfection versus a mindset of experimenting and iterating. With the former leading to doubt, anxiety and failed expectations and little to no progress, while the latter avoids the first three allowing progress to flow. So adopt a different mindset and see your progress soar.

Now I don’t have an issue with the original poster, who is infinitely more successful and insightful than I am. And I recognise that these posts are always constrained by the space available to a catchy social media post.

But its only ever half the tale. And I got to thinking about the sort of person who sees this type of post and thinks about applying it to themselves. So, in this case it’s the perfectionist who has always found themselves not starting anything because of that fear of failure and anxiety about meeting their own standards. And thinking that a shift to an experimental mindset would work wonders.

But they are up against deep seated beliefs that have often had years to take root. And they won’t shift that readily. And they may very well find themselves slipping back into that perfectionist mindset, with the added bonus of beating themselves up for having “failed”. I know this is a real possibility – because it happens to me. And if you are trying to overcome a fear of failure as part of that perfectionist mindset, then this is really not going to help.

The ideas behind these tips are often simple to write down, and simple concepts to grasp. But actually putting them into practice is harder than just understanding the words. And especially if you are trying to put them into practice on your own in competition with a potentially unhelpful internal dialogue and deep-seated beliefs. So, if you want to boost your chances of success, don’t try to make these changes on your own. Find yourself a buddy, find yourself a community with similar goals, or find yourself a coach who is trained to challenge you and support you through these sorts of changes.

So best of luck with any work you are doing and if you want to know more about what working with a coach is like, then drop me a line.

#coaching #lifecoaching #motivation