ISH - Finalist in Business Book Awards

Great to be a finalist in The Australian Business Book Awards for 'ISH: The Problem with our Pursuit for Perfection and the Life-Changing Practice of Good Enough’ - a big thanks to Scott Eathorne for helping get the message out there about the perils of perfectionism.

There is an alternative to the overthinking and overworking that is making us miserable, anxious and unwell. So many media outlets picked up the message: including podcasters, radio broadcasters, TV, industry journals, print media, magazines, book reviewers. ‘ish: The Problem with our Pursuit for Perfection and the Life-Changing Practice of Good Enough’ is available as - paperback - audio book - e book

Dissing the new

In the area of 'new ways of working' there are opportunities to, you know, try new things. New ways of doing things are happening the world over, across diverse sectors and deep into different domains and areas of expertise.

So there is new. There are opportunities to look, learn and try out the new.

How wonderful!

It’s perplexing when of course some people - no, not you - but some people, dismiss the new.

They dis the new. They bag it, disrespect it, criticize it and claim it’s not for them. But it’s new! How can you dis it if you haven’t even tried it?

Ok, then if you have tried it or have done it, you have incredible experience and insight to offer. And it’s a shame and a waste when that experience isn’t invited, acknowledged, listened to or leveraged in organisations. Our experience gets dissed.

Looking ahead, will you dive in and try the new or will you stand back and dis the new?

How can we adapt to newer ways of thinking and working if we're too busy dissing?

Just thinking, or capturing the thinking

Working on tasks like problem solving, idea generation or planning and decision making means we can get into some pretty heavy thinking.

I wonder... are we doing too much thinking and not enough capturing of the thinking?

Have you had that situation where you've come up with an idea, some clever thoughts and then ... it's gone, disappeared as quickly as it arrived? Can't remember it?

It’s a waste to think great things and not net, trap or curate and gather them. Too often we dismiss our thoughts and ideas as not being valuable, but they’ve just been created as thoughts; they haven’t been further morphed into an action or an implementable thing.

Give yourself the credit that yes, you did come up with an idea, a possibility. Then capture it as soon as you can!

A library of ideas is something to draw from later on.

We can't always sit down and expect brilliant ideas to come to us on demand. Rather, we can capture them when they come throughout our daily habits and activities. This is the clever art of idea curation.

Q: Do you lose your ideas or do you catch them?

Willing to start

So many ideas, so little time. It’s a feeling we can have that can make us not even bother with the work of putting any of our ideas out there. But they’re not really ideas until they are ‘out there’. Until then they are just thoughts.

So on the theme of 'willing' : ready, keen and eager ... are you willing to - start? Perfectionists among us hold off on pressing ‘go’ or registering the domain, writing the blog or making the call. Yet we’re willing to think and imagine for hours, potentially days. And not act. Waiting, wondering, rehearsing, imagining. All that mental and creative effort that never gets a return on our investment of time.

How about we be willing? Yes, we don’t know the outcome; and yes, we can’t control it. But the products we buy, the services we use and the people we admire have all required someone who was willing to start.

Will you? Won’t you?

Willing to learn

Plenty of people spruik 'fail fast' and 'failure is sexy' messages, trying to make us learn to love, like or just tolerate failure. But I don't think we want to. We resist failure. It's natural.

We don't want to be associated with stuff that didn't work or things that could ruin our current or future career or reputation.

So how about learning? OK, now we have something to work with. Not as scary as failing; still insightful and full of lessons. And possibly, some tough lessons.

Could we be more willing to learn?

Willing; it means prepared, ready, eager. If we are, we'll be more able to adapt, change, respond and try new things ... demonstrating more ease and less resistance.

Organisations in a constant state of change need more people who are willing to learn. When you take on a new role, start a new project, work in a new team or move to a new neighbourhood, there's plenty of learning up for grabs.

Learning doesn't make us bad, weak, unskilled or irrelevant. In fact, our ability and willingness TO learn is an advantage.

Be willing to learn, more than you are - be prepared, ready, eager. Show more ease and less resistance to learning.