MKE Week 8 – Change in plans

Perfectionism stops many of us from reaching our goals because we forget that the creation of something great requires us to change, stumble and sometimes even start over. As a fellow perfectionist, sometimes I am paralyzed with the process because I’m afraid of failing and starting over. My cure has been to just start and I remind myself to be ok with the outcome. Before I figured this out, I often didn’t even begin.

Recently I spent about 7 weeks creating a life plan through writing, pictures, creating a movie trailer only to feel like it didn’t quite match what I want over the next decade… This meant I needed to begin again, step by step with a combination of thought, heart and gut. It meant digging deep and asking the hard questions, like. “What do you REALLY want, Ann?”

Over my 5 decades, I have accomplished many things I was initially afraid of; joining the Army National Guard in High School, moving out of state, becoming a pharmacist, becoming a mom, managing pharmacies, running a half marathon, lifting 275lb in a deadlift competition, winning a sword in a bench press competition, finishing cycle Oregon event, becoming a financial advisor, and leaving my pharmacy career to create my own business are just a few I can recall.

Even though they are all very different accomplishments, the one thing they all have in common is that I REALLY wanted to finish them. Often, I was unsure of the how, I only knew I wanted to do it.

These days, I am more aware of my feelings and I use activity to blast through the fear of failure, starting over and many other obstacles my subconscious tries to drum up to keep me comfortable.