Progress Over Perfection

It’s officially summer, everybody. 

The weather is heating up, the days are getting longer, and you know what that means—it’s wedding season.

Like most of us, when spring and summer comes around, you may notice an uptick in the number of floral-papered invitations that start to trickle in your mailbox. 

Now, although you may not be married yourself, I’m sure you’re generally familiar with the proceedings —ceremony, drinks, dinner, and dancing, etc. 

And if you’ve ever attended or had your own, you know they're pretty important with lots to coordinate.

And often, things don’t always go as planned.

That cousin who never RSVP’d showed up anyway. An uncle who’s had a bit too much to drink makes a speech. A bridesmaid forgets the right shoes. A groomsman spills his drink on his suit.

You get the idea. 

And yet, even with the imperfections, the goal is often still achieved. Details aside, at the end of the day there’s a new marriage.

And sure, we’ve all heard stories of bridezillas or family members that insist that every detail be just right, overreacting to any mishaps.

But how often do we find ourselves with that same attitude in our business?

What I’m getting at here is, the importance of keeping our focus on the main goal, and not allow ourselves to get hung up on the minutiae.

How often do we not make the main thing, the main thing.

Now, don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea to value organization and being detail-oriented. In fact, those are all good things.

But similarly to how the wedding dress or the flowers are also good things, they aren’t the purpose of the event. 

In marketing, this can look like getting hung up on the extraneous design details in a content piece, rather than the client’s goal, which is to grow their business. 

Maybe the creative didn’t turn out quite as planned, or a print piece experienced some snags with the printer. 

While it’s understandable to want to fix these things, it’s important to not allow them to detract from the purpose. 

Maybe the creative turned out slightly different than expected, but the campaign launched just fine. Or the printer hit some snags, but the piece gets completed and mailed on time.

I’m not entirely sure what details you might encounter in your work. And I’m sure it can be a real discouragement when things don’t go as planned. 

But just as a bride and groom can forget the particulars of their wedding day and focus on the main purpose, so can we in our business.

Because ultimately, we’re aiming for progress, not perfection. 

We’d love to execute the perfect ad campaign, but I’m not even sure one exists. 

Maybe your goal is to build the perfect product launch. And while this dream is nice to have—it’s simply not likely. 

The main mission remains the same, though. To enter each day with a goal of incremental improvement, building our dream one piece at a time.

Over time, our progress gets closer and closer to perfection. That is, if you remain committed to the plan and stay focused on the goal.

So aim for progress, and chances are you’ll relieve yourself of the pressure to be perfect.