Perfectionism is (politely) holding you back

How many 'almosts' did you have last week?

The idea you nearly acted on. The email you drafted and didn't send. The thing you told yourself you'd get round to when a few other bits were in place first.

'Almosts' are perfectionism's favourite currency. And I've noticed that creative professionals especially tend to have a lot of them.

Let's talk about the word 'yet'

"I'm not ready, yet."

It sounds so reasonable. Excusable. Unlike a Fear.

And that, honestly, is what makes perfectionism one of the trickier of The Four Fears® to call out. It doesn't feel like hesitation. It feels like standards. It arrives with a very convincing story about why now isn't quite the right moment; why the work needs just a little more attention, why the conditions will be better once a few things are sorted.

We use 'yet' as a placeholder. A way of making avoidance feel purposeful. "Not yet" suggests action is coming, just not today. And because that sounds perfectly sensible, we accept it without much interrogation.

The trouble is that 'yet' only works if 'ready' is a real, reachable destination. And when perfectionism is involved, the destination keeps moving. The brief gets more detailed. The research goes deeper. The rebrand that was supposed to take a fortnight is now in its third month. The new offer is nearly there, has been nearly there for six weeks, and is showing no signs of arrival.

The 'yet' gets bigger. The 'almost' list grows. And somewhere underneath it all, quietly driving the whole thing, is a belief that the work, as it currently stands, is not good enough.

Which brings us to the real conversation.

Where perfectionism sits within The Four Fears®

If you're new here, a quick orientation.

In my work with creative professionals, almost every form of hesitation and self-sabotage traces back to one (or more) of four recurring beliefs:

"I'm not ready" – perfectionism

"I'm not good enough" – comparisonitis (imposter syndrome)

"What if I don't have time?" – procrastination

"What if I get it wrong?" – fear of failure

These are The Four Fears®. Habitual thinking patterns, defaults your supercomputer brain has set, based on old data, that don't necessarily serve the work you are trying to do right now.

Perfectionism is Fear Number One. And it is worth noting that "I'm not ready" and "I'm not good enough" are, more often than not, the same Fear in different clothing. The work isn't ready because you aren't sure it's good enough. And you're not sure it's good enough because you're holding it against an internal benchmark that keeps shifting. Perfectionism is a moving target.

A word in defence of perfection (bear with me)

The standard take on perfection is that it doesn't exist, so "stop chasing it and JFDI".

I understand the intention, but I think it slightly misses the mark, because perfection, in certain moments, is entirely real.

You've had a perfect cup of tea. The right strength, the right amount of milk, drunk at precisely the right temperature. You may have even dunked a cheeky biscuit in there (sooo cheeky!). Your shoulders dropped. You let out that small involuntary sigh of contentment.

"Ahhhh perfect!"

You've had a piece of work come together in a way that felt genuinely right. A conversation that hit exactly the note it needed to. A project where everything clicked.

Perfection exists. It is just that it is subjective, personal and almost always retrospective. We rarely know we have achieved it until after the fact, which makes pursuing it in advance, as a precondition for starting, a strategy with a very poor track record.

The version of the work that exists in your head will always be more polished than the version that exists in reality. The gap never fully closes from the planning side. It only closes through the doing.

Do. Learn. Do again. Do better.

What we're doing is learning how to better manage the standards we set ourselves (not lowering them at the start just to get going). The quality of our work won't improve in the waiting. It improves through the doing (the work).

What your 'almost' list is really telling you

Take your time with this next challenge:

Pick one thing from your 'almost' list. Something that has been nearly ready for a meaningful amount of time. And ask yourself: what, specifically, would need to be true for it to feel ready?

Write it down. Be specific. Not "when it feels right" or "when I've got the positioning nailed." Actually specific: what would the finished, ready version look like?

Now ask: is that destination clearly defined and achievable? Or does it shift slightly every time you get close?

If it shifts, that's the moving target. That's perfectionism keeping the ready bar just beyond your reach, not out of malice but out of a deep-seated, well-meaning desire to protect you from the vulnerability of putting imperfect work into the world (those other Fears at work – "what if it's not good enough, what if I get it wrong?").

The antidote is not to lower the bar. It is to redefine what the bar actually means.

What if "ready" simply meant "good enough to learn from"? What if the point of the next step was not to produce the finished thing, but to produce the next version, from which you will produce a better version... and so on?

Isn't that how every great piece of art has ever been made?

Re-programme the habit of waiting

Your supercomputer brain works with the data it receives. If perfectionism has been historically coded into the instructions, the data it is currently processing sounds something like: "not yet, nearly there, just a little longer."

Your brain is merely following orders. The big question is whether those orders are actually serving today's you.

Give it a different instruction. Instead of "is this ready?", ask: "what one meaningful step I could take on this today?"

One step, small enough to be undeniable, significant enough to actually count. Then take it, today, with the time and confidence you currently have.

What this does is it creates evidence. Accumulating evidence that you are someone who moves forward on the things that matter, even when conditions are imperfect. And evidence, gathered consistently over time, is what gradually and permanently quietens the "not ready yet" voice.

It builds the healthier and more helpful habit of 'not waiting'.

Every step is a data point. An updated line of code for the brain to follow. Every action narrows the gap between where you are and where the work needs to be. The magic comes from the doing.

Over to you

1. Pick the one thing from your almost list that deserves to move forward this week.

2. Write down one step, specific and achievable, that would move it. Then do that step before the week is out.

   
   

And if you'd like to share what you're working on, or what's been sitting in your almost pile longest, I'd genuinely love to hear about it. Drop a comment below, or come and find me on LinkedIn. These are the conversations I find most useful, and you might be surprised how many other creative professionals are quietly nodding along.

The 'almost' list is not evidence that you're not ready. It is evidence that you care. And caring, it turns out, is an excellent place to start.

Mark Franklin is The Four Fears® Guy: a transformational mindset coach and speaker working with creative professionals across the UK.

If this resonated, the full Four Fears® framework is in my book: How to Embrace the Four Fears® of Business Ownership. Or, if you're curious about which Fear is most active for you right now, my free three-minute quiz is a good place to start.