Waiting for perfection before you get started?

I think we’d all hate to count how many times we’ve waited, too long or far longer than necessary, because we’re not sure what others may think.

That fateful mindset lies somewhere in the muddle among impostor syndrome, indecisiveness and insecurity.

I’ve acquired a few simple mantras over the years that work for me when I step into that quicksand. Feel free to use them if they’ll work for you.

"A man would do nothing, if he waited until he could do it so well that no one would find fault with what he has done." -- Cardinal Newman

Mantra #1

The first one reminds me that in almost all cases, you can fix what didn’t go well. Get it out there … monitor it … fix it if isn’t working.

Ready. Fire. Aim.

Mantra #2

If that doesn’t seem to be working as well as I hoped, I invoke this phrase.

I heard it at a bluegrass festival in Tennessee decades ago when an aging crooner, well known to the crowd, would shout out the question in abbreviated form, and in unison, everyone would shout back:

Affect your life in 10 years?

Faggetaboutit!

I use that one all the time, and in all kinds of circumstances, where I find myself wrangling with something that’s not worth the time and energy it’s taking.

It reminds all of us that trivial issues … which often create a lot of tension … deserve very little of our attention, and to invoke another oldy but goody from Mom, it’s usually because we’re “making a mountain out of a molehill.”

If that happens to you?

Faggetaboutit!

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