Saturday, March 23, 2013

Perfectionism...Beware !!!

When I was a part of the Toastmaster Club, one of the key goal for every Toastmaster is to deliver 10 project speeches that cover different aspects of the presentation skills. In the quest for eliciting a “Wow” on every project speech, I would procrastinate every week, the delivery of my project speech. The result was I delivered 8 out of 10 projects over a period of 4 years! …I had used more than 150 meetings to deliver my 8 speeches…


The point is that Perfectionism is like Infinity….We should tend towards it, but never make it a Goal for we are never sure to reach it… So let us face it

• You may never attain that Washboard abs despite your exercise routine…nevertheless you need to exercise to avoid health risk

• Your blog traffic may never reach the level of Seth Godin’s…nevertheless you need to write to express yourself better

• Your personal wealth of your lifetime may still only match 1-minute of Warren Buffett’s earning in the current year…you still need to learn to make Money work for you

• Your presentation skill may not match that of Steve Jobs…you still need learn to Present your work at office to get noticed

• Your Voice skill may not match K.J.Yesudas …You may still want to modulate your voice to avoid the risk of putting the audience to sleep

There are always 100 people who can do things better than you. It is not because they are much more talented ….it is because they had put in more hours of practice of whatever they do. We can always learn how these folks are better at this particular damn thing …through only one way….by doing that particular damn thing day after day. All it needs is 10 minutes of your day….

As Leo Babauta prescribes …practice the following steps to start doing things & stop procrastinating

Step 1: Identify One habit for the month….not more than one…say Physical exercise

Step 2: Identify a time of the day when you will do it everyday…say 7:00 AM

Step 3:Tell the world through Facebook , Twitter that you are going to attempt the habit …Or sign up for a presentation at the Office (An alternate way is to Journal your experiences and sharing frequently)

Step 4: Just do it for 10 minutes everyday…Don’t over commit more than that (You are a perfectionist!)

Step 5: Do it continuously without a break atleast for an month…This is the key step…No matter whatever the day is, you should not break the chain of your habit…for you have to start all over again…

Step 6: If you have followed the above 5 steps, Congratulations !!! you have added an habit to your life ...

I have added the habit of Physical exercise & Salad diet for Breakfast to my life through the above steps. Now ,anybody you looks at me may not admire my athletic body. Do I care ? No…All I wanted is to exercise my heart daily to do artery cleansing…In the process, if I attain the washboard abs I am not complaining !

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