Stuck in Perfectionism? How to Take That First Small Step (Instead of Overthinking)
Many creatives and entrepreneurs get stuck in the cycle of perfectionism and overthinking that leads to procrastination, a lack of motivation around their once exciting goals, keeping them stuck in a cycle of overwhelm.
Nikia and I had a conversation around where she’s at and where she wants to go that allowed us to identify a key theme many struggle with — the tendency to jump from step 1 - “14”, thinking about all the potential reasons why it can’t or won’t happen.
How to stop jumping from step 1 - 14 & trusting that God will meet you in action.
So often, we see our challenges (or options to get out of them) as black and white, this or that.
We forget that there’s a spectrum of options in between that we just haven’t attuned ourselves to seeing yet.
Nikia Phoenix and I were chatting the other day, and she brought up a common challenge that so many of us face - the tendency to jump from step 1 all the way to step “14” when trying to execute on a new idea or goal.
"I overthink it," Nikia shared. "The perfectionism is like, 'Well, I want my tea brand, I want this, I want this thing.' Do I do that? Where do I start?"
Does this sound familiar? You have this amazing idea - maybe it's starting a tea business, launching a podcast, or finally getting your finances in order. And instead of just taking that first small step, your mind immediately starts racing to the “perceived” future challenges you might face? We tend to jump to steps we don’t even have to worry about yet, forgetting that God meets us in action. When we are in motion, taking care of what is in our control, we tend to align ourselves with people or even just the right next question to ask to help us move along. But, when we don’t allow ourselves to start, because of all the problems we think could happen, we let our blocks dictate our future.
“God Meets Us In Action”
“I need perfect branding first!”
“How will I promote it on every social media platform?”
“What if I fail and waste all this time and money?”
I offered some advice to Nikia (and now to all of us) on how to break this habit of jumping ahead:
"What is the bare minimum, very next step, that you can take to begin to build the habit of doing unfamiliar things? When someone is trying to build the habit of working out, I’d rather they start with being consistent with doing 5 crunches daily rather than 1 big workout for the month and never go back. 5 crunches might seem like nothing, but it's building the habit that will actually help you reach your goal."
The key is to focus on that very first, smallest step - not the whole journey. For Nikia, that could mean simply recording a quick, unedited video talking about her love of tea. No fancy branding or marketing strategy required. But just building the practice of showing up authentically, unfiltered, for the sake of talking about something she loves with the world and build from there.
I also encouraged Nikia to give herself grace and space to just show up authentically, without worrying about perfection or strategy.
"Don't even think about all the strategies to make content pop at this moment, your sole job is to nurture your relationship with yourself and showing up without your perfectionist tendencies that are ultimately taking you further away from your joy and authenticity."
It's so easy to get caught up in ALL the things around what we want and what it will take, preventing us from showing up in the first place. But the reality is, that's just our brain's way of avoiding the discomfort of taking that first real action. We'd rather fantasize about the dream outcome than do the messy, imperfect work to get there.
So the next time you find yourself jumping from step 1 to step 14, pause. What is your very next step to help you show up and move the needle forward? Start there, and give yourself permission to be a beginner. The rest will follow.
