Traded several months for 6 hours...

Last week was a fantastic week for me.

I scheduled my time almost perfectly, and the flow from day-to-day was virtually effortless.I was able to fully enjoy my downtime because I knew I had everything scheduled and that I would follow-through.

Several of my clients are at the point where they are starting to see significant, tangible results from all their hard work. So incredibly fun to be a part of that.

And I launched my freaking website after months of drama.

I should wait until I have my niche clearly defined.

I should just hire someone.

I should put together a formal marketing budget first.

Wait, I should do it myself so that I know the process.

Which service should I use?

I spun out on that for a hot minute. 

What color scheme?

What fonts?

Which template?

Wait, I need to wait until I have professional photos.

I need to find a photographer.

I need to research best practices first.

Can't get my inline subscription form to work, better wait.

Wait, I don't know anything about SEO yet.

I wonder if I should purchase a shorter domain.

What is the best way to format a blog page?

Holy shit.

The pursuit of perfection or trying to do it the "right way" has stopped me from doing many things over the years. I'm learning how to let that go. I was chasing something that didn't exist. 

Even if I waited until I thought I had a perfect website, there would be plenty of people who would disagree and vice-versa. Chasing perfection is a subconscious way of avoiding risk.

My little mental spin out with my website was just a smokescreen and a tricky feel-busy-but-not-accomplishing-any-thing-kind-of-way of avoiding risk.  

The risk of judgment.

People might criticize my message, my typos, my photo, my style, my grammar, my topics, the fact that I'm even a life coach.

I was so in the trees with this one that I couldn't see it.

Like I really thought it was about the font and the style of the buttons. 

We got snow here in Tulsa last week, so my in-person networking events were canceled, and I had a rare open day on my calendar.

My first instinct was to find a YouTube video on how to launch a website or look for articles about mistakes to avoid, or SEO best practices.

I was going to make a list of all the things I needed to learn first. Estimate how much time each would take, and then schedule it.

And then I realized what I was doing, it just clicked.

I realized I was trying to protect myself from judgment.

People are going to judge me because that is what people do  (good and bad). I had to work on letting that be okay.

People's judgment of me is only a problem if I decide to make that mean something about me. And if someone notices typos, that's okay because there are typos.

It doesn't mean that I'm somehow fatally flawed and shouldn't be in this business. It just means that I'm probably not going to get hired to write copy. People might judge my grammar and the topics that I cover, and that's okay too.

I had to manage my mind and direct it to other possibilities. 

The possibility that some people might find inspiration by something I've written, especially if they're struggling with the same problem. 

And they might find hope at a time they're desperately seeking it. 

Or they might learn a little something that helps make their day better.

Or they might laugh.

Or let themselves daydream about transforming their own life.

Or permit themselves to have hope. 

To believe that it might be possible for them to do hard things too. 

I decided I was going to start over on my website and launch it before the end of the day.

No matter what.

And I did.

Threw on some 80's music and GOT AFTER IT.

It took around 6 hours.

I wanted to puke after I hit publish.

But that's okay too.

Discomfort and I are quickly learning to tango.

Above all, I was excited to have checked that box after so many months of drama. And I was proud of myself for making it happen. I easily could have come up with 100 reasons that I should wait. But I didn't. 

If I hadn't managed my mind around this one, I would have rolled out my website about the same time I got rolled into a nursing home.

Seriously. So much drama.

If you find yourself continually delaying a project, get curious. Are you subconsciously trying to protect yourself too?

Machele Galloway is a Certified Life Coach through The Life Coach School. She's based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and specializes in helping her clients manage their time and their minds. She firmly believes that you can't manage one without managing the other. She virtually coaches women nationwide. If she isn't coaching clients, she is studying concepts and techniques. And if she isn't doing that, she's probably playing with a dog somewhere. If you are interested in working with Machele, click here to schedule your free consultation to find out if it’s a good fit for you.

Enjoying the content? Click here to be notified via email when a new blog is posted.