Are you someone that likes everything to be purfect?
I’m guessing reading purfect may have annoyed you and you’re already thinking of writing in and saying that it’s spelt PERFECT BEN!
If you are someone that likes thing to be PERFECT, then why is it a bad thing?
Well let’s dive into Hannah’s story so you can understand how it affected her multi million-dollar property business.
Hannah is a business owner who has been running her property business for over 30 years. She has created a property empire but for some reason is always on edge!
She told me that she can never relax and that her mind is constantly wondering onto problems in her business. She can’t stop thinking about it. She said that the most peaceful time in her life was when she got injured and couldn’t work on the business.
She even asked me if a life of doing nothing is what she is created for, in order for her to be happy!
Now as you can imagine as we started working with each other, there were a few core patterns that I want you to see that she had in her life.
As you read, do reflect to see which ones relate to you:
1. Excessive stress
Hannah knew that things could always be better. She would find herself always looking for things that were wrong in her business. No matter how many things she did, there was always an issue. Whether this was someone complaining about an issue they found with a property, staff that are ill or issues with the wifi! It always seemed that there was stress.
Not only this, when she would do fun activities, golf for example, she would get even more stressed! This stress meant that her business suffered, as she couldn’t handle taking on even more projects and clients purely because it was overwhelming.
2. Crushing failures
This pattern occurred for Hannah when there was a trigger that set her off. For example, she had an expectation that she would win a project. Yet many times she would lose out, in these moments, Hannah felt that she must have done something wrong.
This in turn meant she was looking for more issues and experiencing even more negative emotions. This would lead her on a downward spiral where literally for days she wouldn’t do any work due to being overwhelmed whilst constantly asking the question of: “what did I do wrong.”
When you fail and you will most certainly do, this probably hits you so hard that you may also go on a downward spiral. This pressure you feel to always succeed isn’t just in your business though, but also in other areas of your life.
When you are going through these downward spirals resulting in negative emotions you will perform even worse. This affects your productivity at work, as well as the team as they take in all of the negative energy you’re giving off.
3. Can’t trust people
Trusting people was something Hannah struggled with for a long time, especially when it comes to very important clients! Why would she trust them? She can do it better herself!
She can trust employees and managers to do the easy tasks that aren’t as important but when it comes to the big projects. It’s better that she checks on everything and makes sure that it is done because if they make a mistake then that would mean severe consequences!
You can only imagine how this stopped her expanding her business as she was always working in the business as opposed to on the business.
Unfortunately due to this lack of trust it meant that she would never be able to leave her business that she had created over the past 30 years. Only when this pattern was removed could she start to look into other projects in her life.
4. No compromise
Hannah would also have a no compromise attitude when it came to negotiations in business. You can imagine the issues she faced, as she wanted everything done her way.
It was very difficult to negotiate new business opportunities and make her a better innovator by being open to other people’s opinions. This meant that despite her success, she didn’t have the success trajectory she was truly capable of.
When we look at successful entrepreneurs around the world it’s often their flexibility and ability to act quickly that helps them most. This is especially important through periods of uncertainty where companies must innovate to stay ahead of competition.
5. Lost opportunities
Another pattern that was an issue was Hannah’s belief of: all or nothing. This can be seen as a pro and a con in different circumstances.
In some cases it is great to be a person that can go all in or not at all. However, if that’s all you can ever do then big issues will occur. For example, when Hannah looked into side projects or trying new things it would be something that would be pushed to the bottom of the list. She wasn’t willing to give things a go.
Alternatively when she finally did try something. She would go all in and end up wasting a lot of money, time and energy on something that wasn’t that important.
Perhaps you’re in a similar position, where you won’t take projects on if you feel you can’t complete them to your standard. Maybe you’re wasting opportunities right now and losing vital time as a result?
6. Unrealistic expectations
As a perfectionist, Hannah would expect results that were way above what many of her employees were capable of. Despite that she knew this, she would still push for this standard. Unfortunately this would often lead to issues for her employees as well as problems with motivation.
Moreover, conflict would occur if things were not done her way, as opposed to just getting the job done. Instead of expanding business, her actual outcome was to expand her business in “her” way.
This would work for people that are like her but for others it creates conflict. Are you causing conflicts in your business through too high expectations?
If you can learn to let go of the perfectionism holding you back and start to allow yourself to be happy. The reason I say allow is that when we look into the top 5 regrets of the dying, one of them was actually: “ I wish I allowed myself to be happier” So once again, you need to allow yourself to be happy, then you are going to have a much more fulfilled and successful life. The best strategy I can give you is to trade your expectations for gratitude in every area of your life. If you can start to do this then your world will shift in a very different direction.
If you too are struggling with the challenge of perfectionism. Do book a call with me below so I can share how we help entrepreneurs like yourself to make the shift, and massively boost business success.
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