Procrastination & the "Perfectionist"

We give ourselves so many excuses. You know, we always hear these excuses of why aren't people getting ahead and what their major challenges are and how come they haven't started. But I think my favorite. My favorite excuse is sort of it's the prettiest excuse that you ever hear. It's that it's. I call it the perfectionist lie. You know, it's the perfectionist. It's the person who says, oh, you don't understand. I can't get ahead in my life because, you know, I'm a perfectionist. Or, Brendan, I haven't completed that project because you don't understand. I'm a perfectionist. I care about excellence. So I have not completed that yet. And it's just. It's just this great vain sort of abstract lie where people blame their personality, right? It's like, I'm a perfectionist, so I can't get it done. I just think that is the most beautiful little lie. Because really, if a perfectionist was honest with themselves, at least they'd be precise. They'd be able to say, you know what? I have not started or completed that thing because I am unsure or I am distracted, right? That's really the truth. They're unsure of what to do so they don't begin, or they're distracted so they don't complete. Or even if they do complete and they don't ultimately share that thing or ship that thing, then the perfection, the challenge there is really just fear of judgment, fear of rejection. And at some point, we have to be mature and honest with ourselves and stop saying, well, it's because I'm so perfect that this isn't done, and say, actually, maybe it's because I'm a lazy ass, or maybe it's because I'm letting the world distract me and rip me away from my passions and my day. Because I haven't taken control over my time. I haven't taken control over the responsibilities I have and arrange them so I can focus on my real passions, my real desires, my real dreams. You know, at some point, we just have to be conscious enough to say, oh, wow, I'm not moving forward because I'm scared. I haven't completed this because I'm distracted. And realizing that that scaring feeling, that fear of rejection or failure, it's not gonna go away. And it's not supposed to. There's some big ideological belief out there that we're never supposed to feel fear. The time that we finally fear no fear, we can go ahead and crush it in the World, the fear's not going away. It's always going to be there. I've been backstage about to go out in front of thousands and thousands of people, terrified out of my brains. If I sat back there and waited until I was super strong and perfect and certain to. To go out on stage, I'd never be able to serve. You know, you hear from the great rock stars, the great public figures, the great people who've moved the needle of the world. They were terrified, they were scared, but they didn't stop. Even with the failure, even with the failure on their mind, even with the fear in their body, that impulse running, they did it anyway because they used their higher conscious, their higher desire to serve, and they let that. What if instead of being overwhelmed by fear, we became overwhelmed by our sense of faith, by we let ourselves overwhelm ourselves and say, yes, the fear is there, but I'm going to proceed anyway because I can make my difference. You know, what if instead of getting distracted and keep blaming our distractions on perfection, we actually said, you know what? I'm always going to be distracted. There's always going to be some new thing in the world, some new responsibility, some new whim or want of the people around me to pull me from my very sense of freedom and happiness and joy in life, my very progress. I'm not going to compromise my day to serve everybody else in a way in which I can't at least complete the things that are meaningful to me. You know, we at some point have to take ownership of our lives and. And realize, no, it's not because we're pretty and we're perfect. It's because we are scared and our lives are messy and we haven't got control of it yet. So this day, let's start that. Let's be okay with the fear. Let's be okay with the fact that everything's gonna be messy, but at least begin. At least complete it. Because you know what? Nothing is perfected anyway until it's completed. Right? First it has to be completed. Then we can tinker and tweak it and perfect it. A lot of our major brands and the major tools and technologies, they release things. They complete things. They release them as beta, then they perfect them, get them better and better and better and better, but at least they released. At least they completed. At least they started serving and getting their things in the marketplace. So let's do that. Let's get to work today. Let's stop fooling ourselves and saying, oh, well, it's just got to be so perfect. So I'm not going to begin because you don't understand, Brendon. I have to have things perfect because that's just important to me. You know what? How about you have them done? How about you have them out there? How about you have them serving people? How about you have the difference being made, Even if it's not totally right, Then get it right and more right and more right and more right after you complete it. This is the time to complete those projects you've been waiting on. Don't fear them. Get them done. Don't be distracted by everybody else's thing. Manage your time better. Take back control. Get your stuff out there and you'll see the difference you can make in the world.