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And then there's the perfectionism...
My need to have things look and sound good (yes "perfect") before anything goes before the public eye. It's been a problem since childhood. I'm the daughter of Mr. Perfection. Lovely man, my father. He didn't push his personal need for excellence on me, but I picked it up anyway. I
'm not alone. Research shows that girls learn early that they should be perfect little beings. For the past century there have been thousands of books and articles on how to the perfect wife, lover, mother, daughter, friend, how to have the perfect body, how to get the perfect man (of course you have to be the perfect woman to snag the perfect guy). Agh, the list goes on! I just noticed a product today while I was taking one of my side trips to the Net called "Perfect Woman Breast Cream." Yes, it's all about making them bigger. Part of getting that perfect man I suppose. Does it ever end???
The Impact. How this impacted by work on the Emma Says project. You can see how the multi-tasking thing can easily get in the way -- distraction after distraction, leaving me little or no time to work on what's important to me because I've wasted so much time on the unimportant stuff that I've lost my energy and enthusiasm for what (ostensibly) means the most to me.
here's how that perfection syndrome crept into my work as I was getting The Women's Edge in Leading site up. I woke up one morning realizing that these 5-minute weekly audios are really just a small part of a MUCH BIGGER undertaking - a whole cyberspace learning environment for women - under the umbrella of The Women's Edge in Leading portal. Yes, no more would I hold just the occasional in-person gathering of women; it would be the learning environment I'd envisioned from the start. It would be the "perfect" portal. Well good news on the idea itself, but bad news for the launch of The Women's Edge in Leading (formerly Hairpin Turns for those of you who have known me for some time). Would I now need to wait until ALL of it was ready? What was that about?
So the day I got this epiphany, I started mapping out the entire Internet-based mega launch of The Women's Edge in Leading - the web site, format, articles, webinars, assessments, interviews, products, resources. You name it and it was in there. I convinced myself that this expanded project was the only way to go and I put up a rudimentary site. I changed the major launch date from March to June. I figured that by June 1st, I'd have the whole women's site revamp ready. Hmmm, a little too ambitious maybe?
Well, when June 1st arrived, was the new site ready for prime time? No it wasn't. But here's what was…my weekly podcasts, and that's it. I didn't wait for the perfect launch because I'd decided to launch in increments and that's exactly what I did. In July I launched the podcasts -- an interim site until the main site was ready. And in November, The Women's Edge in Leading came to life with its new look and content. In fact, it was/is everything I had envisioned and then some. And all because I balanced my need to multitask and my need for perfectionism with a healthy dose of reality. And that's what worked.
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