Someone was teasing me about flogging my (soon to be finished) book in a recent blog. It was all good natured and tongue in cheek, but the reason I’ve been telling you and quite a few others ISN'T just to sell a few copies.
The REAL reason for my blabbing away about it is that the more people know about it, the less I can procrastinate and mess around and delay and not finish the thing.
I’ve done that for far too long.
My reason for delaying is always perfectionism. I can work on it, and work on it, and work on it, but perfectionism says “It’s not yet done” … and so it never gets done. "It's not good enough yet" ... and so it never ever gets released out in the wild.
Do you have a project like that?
It could be something big, like a book or some studies. It could be something “small” like doing some daily exercise or closing your eyes to meditate.
Sometimes its just that you are "too tired, and you’ll start tomorrow", or "next weekend" ...
Often you don’t feel like it, so “what’s the point even starting?” … Or - it just isn’t going as well as you think it should, so you quit early and go home … Or like me - it just needs a little more work before anyone else can see it … Or - you need to learn a little bit more before you start actually even doing something … right?
There is such power in just doing it, no matter how confident or ready or educated or how you feel about something.
Its amazing to me how someone would rather clean their whole house than sit quietly for 10 or 15 minutes. The hardest thing about meditation is sitting down and staying down until your time is up. Actually, I only know how hard it is to start AND finish because I have that voice too.
The good thing is - honestly - that voice loses it’s juice, it’s power, the more you just ignore it.
Here’s what I have learnt - and there’s a fellow called Pat Flynn whose email the other morning said exactly what I was feeling about just doing it: _______
"It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be good. But you do have to finish what you start." _______
If you have people who know what you’re embarking on, what your goal is, that helps you hugely. Because when that perfect voice and the quit voice comes in, you have that extra bit of outside accountability and help not to listen.
Because … it doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t have to be good, you just have to start. And if you start, just finish.
Then you have the things you say you want in your life.
You can meet your goals, have amazing adventures, go new places, spend quality time with people - all with freedom from overwhelm and stress and struggle and negativity.
You get to decide how you live your life - and that is worth its weight in gold.
Alrighty?
So lose perfectionism, lose doing it tomorrow, lose waiting until the conditions are great, and just start - and then finish.
Go well, Arjuna
PS. You know what? I am really quite excited to finally be finishing this book. It’s been years in the writing. I feel like I have - almost - achieved something. And that is quite the motivation to get it done.
The interesting thing is I don’t really care how many people read it. Just having it out there is the main thing.
Perfectionism? Having people like it? Well - who cares when I can send my dad a book that I wrote? Ha!
PPS Oh - talking about accountability - I have a little 7 day challenge to become more mindful. We have a little facebook group so I can help you actually do the 7 days.
Here’s all the info - https://arjunaishaya.lpages.co/houradaymindful/ Many many people have been saying they aim to do 7 days, and then keep going because the benefits are so good. Good reason to join in, no?