Doing Your Best: How Perfection Holds You Back

Hi. My name is Sharon Gutierrez and I am a perfectionist. 

At least, I used to be. All of the “perfection” you’ve never seen, because it was never released. If I wasn’t feeling particularly skinny/great hair day/energetic/etc. then I wouldn’t do a video and if I didn’t have two people verify that email was typo free, then I never hit send. 

Where the hell did that get me? Two basic outcomes: 

1. I worked and re-worked something to death, taking 10 hours to do something that should have taken one. OR… 

2. I waited too long, never hit send, and that idea is collecting proverbial dust in a forgotten Google Doc. 

Let’s rewind for a moment…

Years ago I read the book, The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. I reread it every year, and always take away something new. The down & dirty rundown is, there are four principles we should live by: Be impeccable with your word, do not take anything personally, don’t make assumptions and always do your best.

While that was over a decade ago, it wasn’t until the last two years that this particular agreement started to make sense.

It really is that simple: Did I do my best?

Fast forward until today, and both in a personal and leadership capacity, my mantra is to always do your best, even if it’s not perfect. If we wait for perfection, we’ll never hit send. We’ll never share our passion, we’ll never get a chance to fail and we’ll never get a chance to learn. 

Just do your best. 

When I found I was on the last day of my thirty day mastermind, and I had written the last post… I was sitting in the hospital with a family member. I was worried and not at all focused on perfecting that final message… and then I remembered, some days, doing your best may look different than another day. My showing up was hitting send. Maybe I should have done a video, maybe I should have done more… but, I did my best. 

Today, my team is very busy working on agency work. There isn’t someone available to edit my blog right now, but I’m going to hit send, and it’s my best. 

Today, I’m launching my Down & Dirty Networking Program… I pushed the date back once, still haven’t set up all the pixels and ads, but you know what, today, it’s my best. 

Today, I spent 30 minutes at the gym… I did lazy cardio! lol! But today, it’s my best. 

Tomorrow, I’ll do my best. You know what? I’ll also challenge each person who works for me to do theirs.

Today, you choose. Are you going to wait for that unobtainable perfection or just do your best?

Besos,

Sharon