Imagine you are good enough already.
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One of the challenges that I hear often from Thought Leaders is the challenge of enough. In the beginning, people worry that their stuff is not ‘good enough’. Once they get started, capturing their IP, and creating containers of commercial gold they worry that their list isn’t ‘big enough’. Then before they launch a new cluster, they procrastinate based on the assumption that they are not ‘ready enough’.
In the past 10 years of running my practice and in fact, for most of my life, I do not think I have ever been ready for anything! Not launching a cluster because you ‘aren’t ready is the equivalent of not throwing a party because you haven’t got any friends. Never be ready! I love American professor Jon Kabat-Zinn’s quote: “Until you stop breathing, there’s more right with you than wrong with you.”
I used to joke with my friends that I have a weird combination of ADHD and OCD which means that everything I do needs to be perfect for a very short period of time!
Now I have accepted that I may never get anything right! A friend of mine who has recently joined the dating scene was telling me about her pointless pursuit of finding ‘Mr Right’ - she has, after many dating experiences, begun considering ‘Mr Right Now’. ‘Mr Right Now’ is perfect for now. He is right for right now.
I think Thought Leadership is similar. Your practice needs to be right for right NOW. The right message for the right market in the right mode. The ‘nowness’ of this is what we learn from the cluster strategy. We need to create something we can sell NOW. Create something someone wants NOW. That solves a problem that people have NOW.
It is about progress over perfection.
It’s about being current and knowing that what you have is enough for now. If we all waited until conditions of success were perfect, we would never get there! Making peace with now is part of the journey to knowing that you are enough.
We all strive to be “good enough.” Good enough for our parents, our spouses, our jobs, our friends. But what does that really mean? And is it possible to ever feel like we’re truly good enough? The answer is that it depends on our perspective. If we’re constantly comparing ourselves to others and trying to meet some imaginary standard, then we’ll likely never feel good enough.
We need to do what we can with what we know now. Yes, your future IP might be better, you might become better at delivery or find better clients but now is all you have got.
We spend so much of our lives searching for perfection. Don’t wait to do something just because you think you are not enough, time doesn’t know that. Time has no idea!
I also think it’s important not to believe everything you think. One of the greatest abilities humans have is the ability to change our minds. Imagine changing your mind and deciding that you are good enough, that you are ready! I think the answer to being good enough is showing up. It’s about turning up and doing what you can. Maybe if you do that you might wake up one day and find you are enough!
I am a big fan of Mark Manson’s direct and no-nonsense approach to life and I think this quote sums it up nicely…
“Some days you’ll be productive.
Some days you won’t.
Some days you’ll be healthy and energised.
Some days you won’t.
But every day, you can control whether you show up or not.”
– Mark Manson
Lisa O'Neill
CEO