Why It’s Ok To Have Some Rough Edges

As a relatively new blogger, I’m still learning the ropes as it were. The technology is fairly straight forward, but trying to get from point A (a scrambled idea or insite) to point B (a succinct and polished blog post), can be a challenge at times.

It’s not that I haven’t the ideas – there are plenty of those - in fact I have far more content than currently published.

The thing that stops me in my tracks is trying to be ‘perfect.’ Tweaking and adjusting articles. Not posting an article because I already posted one this morning and ’should’ really wait until tomorrow or even playing the ‘when-then’ game – when xyz thing happens, I will post this idea.

I sometimes play these silly games in my head instead of just finishing the blog post when I get an idea and publishing it so that it will be of value and benefit to readers straight away.

But I am starting to change.

You see, in addition to providing me with a ‘virtual sandpit’ to have some fun and play in, the purpose of this blog is to provide useful content and be of service. Plus of course it allows readers with the opportunity to connect and get to know me. Something that isn’t possible if the articles are sitting in my draft items folder!

Interestingly, I see this perfection game being played out in people’s careers all the time. People fail to send out CVs / resumes until it’s ‘just right’ or fail to set up a meeting with an old contact until they have decided on exactly how to phrase the call or email or don’t attend networking events as they are still working on their elevator speech.

Like me and my blogging, you are caught up in perfectionism. Something that will get you nowhere – and probably frustrate the hell out of you. Getting over this is part of ‘the inner game’ of career management – removing the blocks in your mind that stop you from succeeding.

So listen up – it’s ok to have a CV / resume with some rough edges, it’s ok to send an imperfect email to a contact to organise lunch and it’s ok to have an elevator speech that’s not pitch perfect.  
 
As Seth Godin says in a recent blog post “If you want to get noticed, don’t be so polished.”  Click here to read his comments along with some useful examples of how not being perfect makes good business sense. 

In the meantime, you can loook forward to a lot more blog posts & articles from me. They may not be perfect and at times they may not always be polished. But that’s ok, perfection is boring.
;o)

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