Good Enough is Perfectly Fine (a few lessons)

 

It’s Saturday morning and I’m breaking my rule of not working weekends, but my boundary is that I’ll only do it for 1 hour and I’m just here to get my 1,000 words in today.

 

I’ve heard people say before that when they write or give advice, they’re talking to themselves most of the time. Reminding a future version of themselves of an important insight or lesson they have just discovered. This is definitely that.

 

So today, while low-key avoiding my 1,000 words, I saw another list on my desk with the heading “LR.com 1%”. On this list, are tiny improvements I could make to my website to make it better. Every so often, I will spend a few minutes looking at my site and consider what could make it better.

 

This list is really helpful for lots of reasons.

 

1.     It gets me in the mindset of looking for continuous improvement.

2.     It helps me remember that nothing is ever finished or perfect.

3.     It’s a way of capturing ideas that I have before I have the time to do a major overhaul/upgrade of the site.

4.     It gives me a ready-to-go list of small tasks that usually take less than 10 minutes that I can do when I:

 

 

If you feel ‘negative’ emotions like resistance or procrastination, don’t panic, don’t start spiralling and above all, don’t get anxious. 

 

Step into the feeling and just be there, and then look around at what opportunities and lessons it has presented you with. 

 

Ask yourself the question: “What else can I do right now?”, keep moving and you’ll be ok.

 

 

So today my 1% website task was to re-format the featured images on my blog so that they looked nicer. I wanted to add a black frame in Canva to increase consistency and make the homepage look a bit tidier.

 

I created my new images and this is the difference it made:

 

Before:

 

After:

 

It’s a small change, but I think it’s a good one. 

 

When I launched my new site last week, there were many things still left on my to do list.

 

Some big things:

·      ‘Work with me’ button + graphic don’t go anywhere because the second site hasn’t been built yet.

·      I only have one page – no about page, functional email address or portfolio pages.

 

Some small things:

·      The copy is basic and doesn’t say everything it needs to.

·      The homepage layout is very simple and needs more content and life.

 

But websites are always a work in progress. You never finish.

 

Last year I spent months working on 4-5 different sites and never published a single one.

 

And so with that in mind, I prioritised publishing this site and only required it serve one purpose. The website loads, and you can see my blog posts. That’s it. 

 

I could have spent months working on the site until it was ‘perfect’ and did all the things I wanted it to.

 

Instead I spent a few hours over a day and a half and then hit publish. Is it perfect? No. Is it perfectly fine? Yes! Do I regret hitting publish before the website fulfilled all my hopes and dreams? Absolutely not!!

 

This was the fastest roll out of a website I have ever completed, and I could only do it because I narrowed the scope, got clear about what I TRULY needed the thing to do, and then just got it out there.

 

There are lots of benefits to working like this, but the main ones are obviously speed and momentum. It’s hard to articulate how valuable these things are though, and to be honest this is a really new feeling for me.

 

There will ALWAYS be improvements to make on something like this. You can spend the rest of your life tinkering and never actually publish OR you can make it good enough/perfectly fine, publish and then get on with your life!

 

It will never be perfect, so just get it out there, and remember that you’ll be improving it forever.

 

 

 

A lot of inertia is generated by the idea that massive changes are required to make something better.

 

And sometimes they are. 

 

But 99% of the time, your life, business or other creative endeavour does not require massive decisions or radical change in order to improve significantly.

 

Sometimes one tiny change on it’s own is enough to make a huge difference. Most of the time though, hundreds (or even thousands) of tiny, incremental 1% improvements are all that is required to MASSIVELY improve something over a long period of time.

 

This the most sustainable and permanent way to change anything. And the only way to ensure that you will actually be happy with the changes when they come.

 

Yes, occasionally drastic measures are required, but I have found these to be the exception to the rule. They are also usually really disruptive and can often be avoided completely if you have been doing the 1% changes as you go. 

 

Large drastic changes are also unpredictable, harder to reverse and easier to calculate incorrectly. We can usually only accurately predict or estimate 2-3 ish months in the future. Drastic actions usually have a much longer residual impact on your life and it’s easier to make a bigger mess if you swing really hard, and much harder to course correct if you get it wrong (which often happens if you are desperately seeking change/improvement).

 

So, take it easy, focus on the 1% improvements, and before you know it, you’ll look around and wonder how you managed to create something so extraordinary.

 

 

-       Linda ✌🏻

 

P.S If you have a creative goal or project that you have ALWAYS wanted to do, or you’ve tried and struggled to get off the ground in the past, I have 3 spaces available for a brand new 11 week 1:1 creative coaching program I have developed. If you’re ready to finally bring your ideas to life, DM me.