Why Being a Perfectionist Will Destroy Your Dreams

Have you ever seen an unhealthy person failing to get fit? They’ll buy a copy of Runner’s Magazine, search for the best gyms, debate dozens of diets, and do just about every damn thing except exercise and eat properly.

Or take someone who dreams of starting their own business. They’ll read just about every business book, go to networking events, hunt for mentors, and follow Richard Branson on Twitter. They’ll do anything except actually start a business.

When a brain is trapped between two negatives – doing nothing, and doing something painful – it invents clever ways to stay busy doing nothing. And one of the most common brain hacks is trying to perfect or complicate things.

Our excuses are almost always complicated. (That’s why we call them complications). There’s always more coming!

Being complicated gives excuses a form of legitimacy – as if all your life is just a hard math problem you’re desperately close to solving, but a new equation somehow keeps popping out of nowhere, making the problem virtually endless.

Most often, people read and think and talk about their biggest problems all the time and never do anything about them.

Or start working on a project, and keep working on the same thing over and over again. Never finishing or releasing it.

We all do this. It’s only easy to see in others.

The solutions that get you started are painfully simple.

Put on some running shoes and go run. Build a product and sell it to one person. All the complicated stuff can come later when you’re running your marathon or hiring your 10th employee.

If your reasons are complicated, they’re almost certainly excuses.

Thank your brain for trying to protect you, but don’t let it outsmart you.