Sometimes we don’t achieve what we strive for in our businesses because we don’t have the knowledge, support or systems in place to accomplish it. But other times we know exactly what to do, and we have the means to get there, but we still don’t make it happen.

The sad truth is that very often we are our own biggest obstacle. How we think and what we believe can hold us back from achieving our dreams as much as any external roadblock. When it comes to hindering your progress, one of the biggest culprits is perfectionism.

Reid Hoffman, the founder of Linkedin, said “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” Contrary to what many die hard perfectionists believe, there is a benefit to releasing or launching something before it is perfect. Getting something out there in the world is your opportunity to receive feedback from your marketplace, giving you direction on where to focus your efforts to improve your offering. Sometimes you can spend a lot of time perfecting something, only to find that your target market wants something different, and you have just wasted valuable time and resources.

And yet, many of us are stopped dead in our tracks by the need to get it perfect the first time around. For us life-long perfectionists, changing that mindset is no easy task. And I know this from experience. A few years ago I created The Pumpkin Plan Action Guide, a workbook with tools and exercises to help you grow your business. I am a stickler for details and I hate typos, but no matter how many times I read through that workbook and thought I had found every last typo, I always found more mistakes and formatting issues to correct. It was torturous. And it was also hurting my business. Every day I delayed was lost revenue for my company, and another day that business coaches didn’t have this valuable tool to use with their clients.

I finally had to ask myself the following questions:

1. What is the impact or cost of releasing this product with some imperfections?
2. Will the imperfections impact the ultimate results produced by my product?
3. What is the impact or cost of delaying the release of this product until it is perfect?
4. Which is greater, the cost of releasing the product before it is perfect, or the cost of delaying the release?

At that point, the cost of delaying the product was greater than the cost of releasing it, even knowing that there could be some remaining typos and formatting inconsistencies hiding in there somewhere. And the good news is that while I have had a lot of positive feedback about the results the program has produced for clients, I have never had a complaint about a typo! I’m not saying that letting go of perfectionism is easy, but try asking yourself the above questions the next time you feel like you are spinning your wheels and see if it gets you moving forward again.

Perfectionism is just one mindset issue that can hold you back from achieving your goals and make you work harder than you need to. But if you can learn to recognize the ideas and habits that sabotage your success, you can also learn how to shift to more productive thoughts.

If you are wondering how to go about learning these mindset shifts, I have great news for you! If you are a woman business owner or entrepreneur, and you would like to learn how you can build your business and achieve your dreams without sacrificing everything else in your life to do it, then I would be thrilled for you to join Provendus Coach Jennifer Dawn and me on Friday, April 29, 2016 in Briarcliff Manor, NY, for:

Experience Abundance! A One Day Retreat for the Woman Who Wants to Grow Her Business AND Love Her Life

This interactive retreat approaches goal achievement from all angles. You will learn the planning and goal setting systems that enabled Jennifer Dawn to build two multi-million dollar businesses, and the mindset shifting techniques that Donna Leyens has taught to countless entrepreneurs to jump start their success.

Would you like to learn more? Click through for all of the details and to register!

Experience Abundance! Information and Registration

(If you’re interested, don’t wait! Early Bird Pricing ends on April 8^th and space is limited to only 38 women)

We hope to see you there!