Expat Diary: Getting Over Perfectionism to Make Dreams Happen 

The Postcard Academy has gone bi-weekly this season as I prepare to launch The Podcast Launch Academy, the ultimate online podcasting course that has been my dream for awhile. But setting this up took a lot longer than I thought it would! I realize now this is mostly because I have been approaching starting this business with a ‘maximizer mindset.’

 

I’m reading 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam in it she talks about the difference between maximizers and satisficers.

 

Maximizers want the best of everything. Satisficers make decisions. They give themselves a few minutes to make a choice and then they go with it. While maximizers will spend weeks trying to decide things like, “What’s the best email service provider? What’s the best website host?” And even when we know our stuff, we’ll go research it again for hours because we want everything to be perfect.

 

But striving for perfection is never satisfying because it doesn’t lead us anywhere. We just spin our wheels instead of moving. So, in life I aim to get better at making quick decisions instead of over-analyzing things.

 

Another realization I’ve had is that we’ll never be 100% ready to start something big. Anything worth doing is going to make you nervous, and you just need to jump in and start when you’re scared.

 

I kept setting launch dates for my course — and then I’d let them slip. I didn’t feel ready. There was so much more to do. I almost did it this time, too, but I stopped myself and made a public announcement that I was launching Podcast Launch Academy on November 19, 2019. I said it out loud to other people and that accountability has made this my most productive week of the year.

 

Having a hard deadline means certain things need to get done everyday to make it happen. And they’re happening.

 

When we don’t give ourselves real time limits for projects — big or small — we let time expand and add in all these extra tasks and research that we don’t actually need. Maximizers are so guilty of this. That’s what leads to those gross feelings at the end of a Saturday when we feel like we’ve spent all day working hard on a personal project, but we’ve got nothing to show for it. Because we fell into Maximizer perfectionist spin, and instead of taking action, we go back into research mode.

 

I did the same thing when I started podcasting, and that’s the primary reason I created a podcasting course — to give others the roadmap I didn’t have to make easy decisions that will help them create a show that listeners love.

 

To kick off Podcast Launch Academy, I’m hosting a free podcast masterclass. Sign up at sarahmikutel.com/masterclass.

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