Last week, I talked about some ways to overcome indecision. As I concluded, I offered the encouragement to accept the power of “good enough.” Let’s dig a bit deeper.
As the old riddle goes: There’s five frogs sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left? Answer: Five. Why? There’s a big difference between deciding and doing.
To my shame, as I reflect over my life, I’ve made many decisions that I’ve never taken action on. (To give myself a bit of credit, there are also quite a few that I have taken action on😉) In the end, what often prevents action is the desire to not just get it right, but to get it perfect. Being a self-diagnosed perfectionist, I’ve stopped myself many times from taking action until I was sure I could accomplish the task and get it completely done perfectly. The power of good enough proves elusive.
But what I’ve learned a few years ago is the concept of the 80% Approach taught by Executive Coach Dan Sullivan. He teaches that it’s important to simply get the project to an 80% result as quickly as possible. 80% isn’t perfect, but it’s a great start! Put the project down, and the next day, give it another 80% effort. Now, I know percentages are my kids favorite subject (not!), so what’s 80% of the remaining 20% that’s left?…96%! Just 2 attempts at the project get it 96% of the way done! One last attempt…80% of the remaining 4% will get you to 99.2% complete! And one interesting thing about this math…keep going with 80% of the remaining amount, you’ll never get to 100%! Nothing is perfect, but it can be good enough!
So, there’s the trick I’ve learned to get my mindset right in tackling a decision I’ve made, and actually taking action on the decision. Making a positive decision to improve your health, your relationships, your finances is a great start…now it’s time to take action!
