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We spend so much time trying not to fail.
We spend so much time mitigating ALL the risks.
And you’ll know that this is what you do if you’ve often thought to yourself:
- “I need to find the best way forward”
- “I need to make the right decision”
- “I need to choose the perfect candidate”
- “I need to do the right thing here”
But what is best? What is right? What is perfect?
Guess what, you’ll only know if it was the “best”, “right” or “perfect” way after you’ve done something.
And guess what else?
Every decision, choice and action you take is probably going to create some “positive” and some “negative” outcomes.
Decisions and choices are never wholly perfect or best or right.
That’s a fact of life.
Everything will have a mix of best AND worst; perfect AND not ideal; right AND wrong. (Think back to the outcome of every decision you have ever made…)
But there are two real problems that occur when we spend so much time looking for the “best” and “perfect” and “right” solutions:
1) We end up choosing smaller goals
We take the easy route, we minimize our opportunity to innovate.
When we ask, “What’s the “best” approach?” This question literally means, “what’s the most conservative approach that will reduce our ability to fail”.
And it probably means you’re not trying something new, you’re not testing a different way that may be more efficient or more effective.
2) We waste a lot of time searching for the “right” solution
When we’re searching for the “best” or “right” or “perfect” solution, it keeps us busy. This is busy work that’s not productive or moving us forward.
And you could keep yourself busy with this for a long time. Because, as mentioned above, you’ll only really truly know if it’s the “right” decision only AFTER you have made it and taken action.
But what if every decision was the best decision because you made a decision?
Because you were willing to test something?
Because you were willing to fail and receive information that will show you whether something does or doesn’t work for your purposes?
What if you could think that every failure has a greater chance of giving you the information you need, more than another hour of searching for the “best” decision?
Now, I’m not saying don’t go and do your due diligence and mitigate certain risks – what I am saying is check-in with yourself.
Are you holding yourself back from trying something new and are you keeping yourself super busy looking for the “best” solution because you don’t want to fail?
Or are you willing to try a new approach, get the feedback and believe that it was the best decision after all because now you know something you never knew before?
Not failing isn’t the goal.
Yes, success is the goal, but failing is the second-best goal.
Not making decisions, not taking action, not innovating, not being willing to fail – those AREN’T the goals!
TAKE ACTION:
- Next time you notice yourself saying or thinking “I need to find the best/perfect/right solution”, check-in and ask yourself:
- “What if failure was ok?
- “What if there was no wrong decision?”
- “What would I try?”
- “What would I test?”
- “What would I do differently here?”
- You can apply these insights to large goals (e.g. strategic work goals) and even to smaller actions (e.g. communicating to a colleague)
- COACHING: If you need help with overcoming limitations and challenges holding you or your team back from innovating and making impactful decisions for exponential growth, then book a free consultation with me here.
