Done Is Better Than Perfect
It floated up through the busy coral reef kingdom of Twitter and resonated. The optimal mantra for my current life experiences, vibrating there on the surface like some magical shimmering reflection. Where if I reached out and touched it, I’d be a fraction more capable. And I wasn’t even looking for the answer. But like love and all those unexpectedly sweet bits of life, the universe gives us surprises that often turn out to be exactly what we need.
I’ve been striving for boldness lately, trying out some new habits and lifestyle adjustments. I quit my mind-numbing yet highly-paid job in the oil-fields of Northern Alberta to move to the megalopolis of Toronto to make a Communications career happen. You see, I’ve got a BA degree in Professional Communication and was only working up in the Patch with all the unbelievable part-time criminal/ full-time rednecks to pay off my student loan. (That’s a link to the blog I got out of the ordeal - some zany, sketchy characters, I tell ya). And my lady lives out here so may as well trust in my talents and trust that the universe responds favourably to boldness and go MAKE LIFE HAPPEN!! Right??
Well, it’s been two weeks and I’m still in the kitchen, working on my Life Recipe. And part of that recipe called for me to figure out how to use Twitter effectively. So I stretched my memory for the lessons we learned in our Digital Communication class at Royal Roads last year and busted out a pretty good strategy. I’m not sure if this common knowledge or not, but these SIMPLE STEPS! got me 40 new followers in 3 days:
STEP 1: PostRank aggregates engagement activity (tweets, comments, votes, etc), from over two dozen social networks, and ranks stories based on how much engagement each has received.
Install the extension, navigate to Google Reader, and PostRank metadata will be brought in, in real-time to help you identify the stories that are receiving the most user engagement. You can also apply custom filters to hide low engagement stories in any feed or folder.
Step 1a: Click here to install the Greasemonkey script for Firefox.
Step 1b: Install the PostRank extension for Firefox.For Safari: Just Download and install.
For Google Chrome: Download and install.
STEP 2: Use Technorati to search for the highest ranking blogs for your field of interest (build a specific personal brand) and subscribe to the RSS feeds in Google Reader. Organize correspondingly.
STEP 3: Be a curator - a Maven - and use your new-found skills at discovering what people are talking about to share those links with Twitter. (Ideally you should find those stories interesting as well).
And part of that treasure trove I discovered through the Twitter Tribe was a group of Aussies holding each other accountable to blog every day for the month of March. It was just what I needed for my procrastination. And then that whole ‘Done Is Better Than Perfect’ thing happened and, well, I just couldn’t say no!
In my current hunt for a career, I’ve missed a few opportunities because I was striving for perfection, instead of just getting it done. I missed a couple proverbial boats because I didn’t “Ship” (That’s a link to the gentleman who introduced me to this wonderful event, writing an supremely inspiring post). I’m a country boy at heart but I’m living in the big city now and life moves fast here. And if I’m waiting until “perfection” to come before I act, well then I’ve most likely already missed out.
Maybe striving for perfection is largely fear-based as we stay focused always on the future of “what-could-be” instead of just being present and appreciating the “what-is-beautiful-now”. Instead of trusting our instincts and knowing that our good-enough is better than many’s best-shot-at-perfection. Instead of embracing ACTION in the present tense and Shipping.
It’s now 2 minutes to midnight and I desperately want to review this post, I’m struggling with an urge right now to go back and fine-tune. But, shit, Done Is Better Than Perfect.
