Hey, my friend, what's up, and welcome back to another episode of Do Life Big. I am so excited to have you here today. Listen, let's dive right in. Today, we're going to be talking about perfectionism and how perfectionism is destroying you and your productivity right now. Listen, just putting it right out there, no beating around the bush. Listen, if you're a perfectionist, or you say that you're a perfectionist, it's ruining your life. Plain and simple, it is. Because you're trying to go from where you are right now to this other place that you desire, right? So you're trying to go from point A to point B, but you're sabotaging your success right now. You're sabotaging yourself because of perfectionism, and it's literally stopping you, and you aren't even able to start and begin to take action toward whatever it is that you want to go for, right?
So first of all, we need to know we need to understand right now that perfectionism is not even real, it is not a real thing. It's literally just a mask that we wear to cover up some sort of fear that we have in our life. So if you say you're a perfectionist, the truth of the matter is that you actually are afraid of something, there's something that you are afraid of, or you're worried is going to happen, and so you're not taking action toward it. So maybe you have a fear of being judged or putting yourself out there or not being respected or people saying “No” to you not or not being loved or having haters or trying and succeeding, and then not knowing how to handle the success. That's really what you're afraid of. And then the perfectionism is really just the mask that you're hiding behind. So, for example, right sitting here saying, Alright, I haven't started my business yet. Or I haven't told anybody about this idea yet. Because my website isn't complete, it's not done. Or I still need to hire a branding photographer and make sure that's all set first; things aren't perfect yet. So I need to wait. I'm just going to wait and hold off. And then you wait, and you wait, and you wait because of this mask of perfectionism. And the reason why perfectionism is ruining your life is because it's preventing you from starting; you never end up going for it. You never end up moving toward that thing that you say you really want to do. You just keep waiting around for things to be perfect before you begin, and then you end up putting your dreams and your goals, and your desires on the back burner, waiting for things to be perfect. When perfect doesn't even exist, there's no such thing.
So what we have to do is we have to adopt this mentality of starting messy and being okay with that. Being new, being a beginner, being okay, not having all the answers, and learning as we go. Otherwise, you're going to be waiting around forever. And the time will pass because time is going to pass anyways. And then you'll never do that thing that you wanted to do because you spent your entire life hiding behind this mask of perfectionism. Listen, every single person here has a purpose or a passion. You have a purpose or a passion of what you want to do in this world. And you probably know what it is. And maybe you've been ignoring it or not paying attention to it. Maybe even dismissing it because you are letting this mask of perfectionism keep you from taking action to move in that direction.
You know there's this thing that you are meant to do in this world. There is, and ignoring that and not doing it will destroy you. It will eat you up inside. It will ruin you. So you could be saying it's not the right time, though. It's just not the right time, but listen, here is what I know. There is someone else out there, literally right now, who has less time than you, who is less qualified than you, who has more going on in their life than you do right now. And they're doing it anyway. And you know what they're getting ahead of you right now as we speak because they're just simply taking action and you're not. That's it; they're just choosing to take action. So don't strive to be perfect. Don't strive for that. Just try to be better, just a little bit better. Just try for a little bit of progress every day, you know, ask yourself every single day, how can I be just a little bit better today than yesterday? What can I do today to make a little more progress than I did yesterday? Was that one small thing that I can do today that will bring me closer to where I want to go? Getting something done is always better than sitting there working on something over and over and over and over again because it's not perfect and then never getting it out there. Something is always better than nothing. Done is better than perfect. And here's the other thing. A lot of people think that they need to be perfect to be accepted. When in reality, people accept imperfection way more than perfection. Because it's real, it's genuine. It's authentic, right?
I'll never forget when I first started my first business, but nine and a half years ago, my job was to share my health and wellness journey on social media. And at the time, I never posted on social media. As a matter of fact, I didn't even have an Instagram account, and I had a Facebook account, but I never posted on it. I just would scroll through, I'd see what everybody else was doing. And now I have this business. And in order for me to get my message out to people and to be able to help them change their lives and become healthier versions of themselves. I had to share what I was doing on social media. And I didn't know what the hell I was doing.
You know, people want real. So, for example, when I started my health and fitness online business nine and a half years ago, and I would post on social media, one of the things that I was really good at that I got better at even as time went on because I wasn't someone who was posting on social media when I started this business. Nine and a half years ago, when I had this online health and fitness business. I didn't even have an Instagram account. But I had a Facebook account. But I also wasn't somebody who posted on Facebook, either; I would just scroll and see what everybody else was doing. And now I had this business that I had to run online. And I had to share my health and fitness journey and share how I could help other people reach their health and fitness goals. And I mean, I knew I didn't know what the hell I was doing. But I knew one thing was for sure. I knew that I needed to post and talk to people in messages the way that I talk. Like in real life, you know what? I swear when I talk, you're gonna hear me drop an F-bomb. It's like, that's just the way it is when you're hanging out with me, right? I just kind of let whatever comes to my mind just fly out of my mouth. And it is what it is. I'm just very blunt and say it like it is. And if you like it, great; if not, sorry, this is who I am. But one of the things I was really good at was typing and typing the way that I would talk as if you were sitting right across from me. And so, you know, there'd be some swears in there. And my grammar wasn't 100% all the time, and there would be typos all the time. And I would even have my mom or my dad message me and be like, you know, you have a mistake here. There's a spelling error. And I was like, I don't care. Because you know what, that's great. Because I want people to see that I'm just a real person. I'm just a normal person, being myself behind the scenes. And that's why even when I would send people voice messages, and still even to this day, and people ask me questions on social media, I will respond to them—most of the time with a voice message. You know, I don't get myself into a perfectly quiet room.
You will hear the chaos in the background; you will hear the kids screaming, or a baby crying, or the dog barking, or just ship being thrown across the house from my three-and-a-half-year-old and something smashing on the ground. I mean, you're gonna hear it. It sounds like a circus in the background. And you know what? I am okay with that. But the one thing that people have told me over the last almost ten years now of being an online entrepreneur is that they love how real I am. And so that's what you need to remember. People want real they do not want the picture perfect; everything looks great all the time. Everybody says, you know, you sound great all the time, you type so perfectly all the time. People want real, like, just can you be a real normal human being? That's it. And so the life that you want will happen, not by you checking off every single freaking thing on your to-do list every day. But it's going to happen by you checking off just that one thing every day. Right? I mean, you should see my list that I have in my phone of my to-do list. I mean, look, we all have, I'm sure you know, I'm sure you have a list. That's super long of all the things that need to be done. And sometimes, it can be just overwhelming, right? And then you look at your list, and you just are like, so overwhelmed, and I'm going to do it.
But here's the thing, if you can just pick out the top three things, like before you go to bed at night, make sure that what's on your to-do list for the next day are the top three most important things that you need to get done that day, and then just do them, you will feel so much more productive. So it's not about just checking them all off. It's about can you check at least one of them off, two or three of them off, right? Every single day, it's baby steps. Can you do the most important things first? Can you get those most important things done, right? Because you're never going to be fully ready for anything, you're just not; there will never be a perfect time. And the good thing about taking action is that you don't even need to believe in yourself to start, right? Just freaking start. Listen, the belief and the confidence will come as you take action. And as you continue to take more and more action. That's the thing that people have backwards. They think that they can't start until they have the belief that the belief needs to be there first, and then once they believe, then I'll take the action. That's not how it works; you got to get the ball rolling, you got to push the gas pedal first and get moving, and then as you get that experience, the confidence and the belief will come, and then it's just a spiral effect. And it builds and builds and builds into the snowball effect. Okay? So if you're sitting around waiting to believe in yourself, well, you're going to be waiting forever. So just start now, go, take that next baby step toward where you want to go.
You know, I don't even really know where this idea came from of needing to be perfect in order to take action anyways. I mean, Jesus, my God, I have messed up royally over the last ten years of being an entrepreneur. I mean, constant mistakes, falling on my face, failure after failure after failure. And listen, I am fully aware, even to this day, ten years in, that I will continue to mess up. But I also know that my business and my life would look nothing like the way it does today. If it weren't for me, just taking that imperfect action, and messing up, and learning as I went, just be okay with messing up. Flaws are normal. Messing up is totally normal.
The last thing that I want people to think is that I'm perfect because I am definitely far from perfect. It's why I tried to show different areas in my life where I'm struggling or where I have failed or even like the other week when I shared how I was in bed sick, kind of crying, feeling sorry for myself, you know, just always being the person that picks others up always being the positive person, the look on the bright side person. But that day, you know what? I just didn't want to be that person. And that's okay. That's totally okay. But I like to share those things because I just want you to see that, hey, I'm just a normal person following my passion. And I hope that I inspire you to take that messy action to be imperfect. Enter chase your dreams as well. So not wanting to put yourself out there because you really just have a fear that someone is going to reject you or judge you. It's hurting your future. You know, we're so afraid of someone hurting our feelings or saying something bad to us. Who cares? Whatever, right? It's our life. Let people say what they want to say. Let people talk about you. Because you know what? They're going to talk about you anyway. Just be okay, starting not knowing what you're doing. You know, I remember when I started my online health and fitness business nine and a half years ago, and like I mentioned earlier, you know, I had never posted on social media; really, it was very rare.
And now I had this business that I had to build on social media, I had to actually create posts and take pictures of myself and of what I was doing and my workout moves and what I was eating and try to inspire other people to, you know, get healthy and fit and show them that, hey, this can work for you too. And you should have seen some of the things that I was posting when you look back, I'm like, oh my god, that was so salesy. Like that was ridiculous. I can't believe I would posted that. But guess what? I learned real fast. I learned what didn't work so that I could figure out what did work. And the only way that you figure that out is by taking that action, not worrying about it being perfect. And knowing that, hey, this is how you learn. This is how you learn. And this is how you grow. There's no such thing as perfection; there is no such thing as perfection. So, go get out there and screw some things up and watch how you grow and watch how your confidence builds each time you do seriously.
You will only get better if you mess things up. Honestly, the most successful people out there have failed more than anyone else. That's why they are where they are. That's why their business is at the level it's at. That's why they are living the kind of life that they are living. They had courage to just go for it. They had courage to start messy. They had the courage to take action, and they were not going to hide behind the mask of perfectionism any longer. And neither are you. Failure is part of the process of success. It's actually more important than the wins and successes. So don't be afraid of the failures. So let's go take off that mask. Let's get going. Action, action, action. And who cares what people think or say about it? It's your life. So let's freakin go. We're gonna Do Life Big. We're gonna go all out. We're gonna chase our dreams. We're gonna go after the business ideas we have are going to take the actions even if we don't know what the heck we're doing. We're gonna learn as we go. It's gonna be messy. And you know what? You have the courage. I know you do.
All right. Well, thanks for listening today. I hope that you enjoyed this episode. You know, I love you. I think you're awesome. Thanks so much for being here. And I believe in you. And I will see you the next time. Bye.
