I was talking with a talented friend the other day about starting a podcast.  He wants to start one…and has wanted to start it for years.  And yet…he has not.

This friend is not intimidated by the technology.  He is more technically capable than almost anyone I know.  From a creation and editing perspective, this would be easy.  He could do it in his sleep.  And yet…he has not.

As I encouraged him to get started, he pushed back with a similar refrain from other people I have heard.  “I just want it to be great.”  He wants to get started and he lights up when he talks about the subject.  But this dance with perfection is keeping him from doing anything at all.  Now he might not call it “perfection.”  He might call it “excellence.”  But that is just a fancy way of us avoiding.  That is perfection ringing in our ears saying “If you are not going to do it well, you should not do it at all.”

This is a bullshit excuse.

Perfection is holding you back.

This might sound familiar to you because it feels like I talk to people like this all of the time.  They want to start a podcast, write a blog, start a business, begin a renovation or take on a new project.  But they are incredibly afraid that they won’t be good at it.  It needs to be perfect.  That perfection is holding them back.

Here’s the dirty little secret.  It won’t be perfect when you start.  As a matter of fact, it might not even be good.  But you have to be willing to let yourself be bad at something new if you want to be good at it.

That’s not my rule…it’s the universe.

So if this resonates with you, today is a good day to start.  You know the project I am talking about.  It’s the one that gets you excited to talk about…but deflates you because you have put it off.  Give yourself permission to be bad at it.  Just start.  Today.

If you start poorly, you give yourself a chance to be good at it…someday.

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