Hack your brain to achieve your goals faster

Did you know there’s a way to achieve your goals faster? A way that’s backed by science?

The wonderful fact is that your brain is actually designed to help you.

Everybody’s brain has what’s called the “Reticular Activating System”. And it’s this system that you can ‘hack’ to help you achieve your goals even faster.

What is the Reticular Activating System and how can it help you grow your direct sales business?

The Reticular Activating System (RAS) is a small bundle of nerve fibers that sit at the back of your brain. It filters information for you, bringing to your attention what is important at any given time.

The RAS is like a filter between your conscious and subconscious mind (that mysterious part of your mind where emotions, memories, habits, and desires live).

For example, have you ever had the experience that you were thinking about buying a certain car and suddenly you see that particular car everywhere?

That’s the RAS in action. It’s passed on to the subconscious mind that you’re mulling over this decision. And in return, your subconscious mind helps you to focus your attention – you suddenly see this car everywhere. It’s not that there’s a sudden influx of this car on the road, but you’re noticing the car now. Your attention is on the car.

Another example of how this works is finding a place to park your car. Some people are really good at quickly finding a park. It’s almost like a spot just opens up for them.

In truth, their RAS is working for them to notice subtle clues that a park is available or becoming available shortly. They notice people walking to their car while getting their keys out, they notice a trunk lid open, they notice reversing lights, etc. And these clues guide them to an open parking spot without them being conscious of all the clues – it feels to them like they just know.

It works the same way with your direct sales business. Once you’ve tasked your RAS and pointed it towards your goal, you’ll notice the subtle clues that will help you. You’ll notice opportunities, you’ll find you are more creative in ways to achieve your goal, and you’ll notice the information that you need in that moment.

So let’s have a look at how to ‘task’ your RAS to focus that attention and filter to help you in your direct sales business.

Here are 4 actions you can do to ‘task’ your RAS

Define specific goals. I’ve talked about the importance of goal setting before and if you haven’t set any goals just yet, do it today.
Imagine yourself achieving the goals in detail. Make it a glorious mental movie in which you involve as many of your senses and as many details as you can. If it’s a big goal, you might want to break it down and see yourself achieving the first step first before moving on to the next step towards your goal.
Add images related to your goals to your vision board. Make sure that your vision board is in a place where you see it regularly.
Focus on your goals daily by writing them in your goal journal or planner. This will also help you to plan action steps.

When you have set a goal and ‘tasked’ your RAS, it will focus your mind. Just like finding a car park, you will suddenly become aware of things that previously you may not have paid any attention to. Things that are useful to you and your direct sales goal.

Let me know how you task your RAS in the comments!

7 Ways to Turbo Charge Your Direct Sales Business

Is your direct sales business in a bit of a slump? Is your account about to be closed? Or perhaps you’re restarting after a pause? Then you’ve come to the right place: I’ve got 7 ways to boost your party plan biz without posting desperate pleas on Facebook (“Please order something from me before my account gets closed…”) and without annoying family and friends (“Mum….can you host another party for me….please…”). Of course you can also use these ideas to level up your business and expand into new circles, pick up some more orders, and generally turbo-charge your direct selling business. I recommend you use several of these ideas at the same time because not all these ideas will work for all of you. It’s a bit like fishing, you’ll have to try different baits and lures and see what you’ll catch in your local pond.

7 ideas to turbo-charge your direct sales business without annoying your friends and family

Market, Fete, or Event Check what’s happening in your local area. Are there any markets or fetes you can book a site at to promote your business? This can be a great way to spread the word about what you offer and pick up new bookings.
Letterbox Drops Do a letter box drop in your local area. Create a special promotion for party bookings or orders and staple a bright flyer to your catalog. When you’re planning your letterbox drop, consider the ‘rule’ that it’s better to target the same house three times than to deliver as many catalogs as you can because people need to see something more than once before they take action. For example, if you can afford 60 catalogs or flyers, deliver them to the same 20 houses over a ten day period rather than to 60 houses. Apparently, the first time creates awareness, the second time people see your flyer they might have an intention to act but the third time they see it they’ll act. I’ve definitely achieved better results following this method but overall my results from letterbox drops have been mixed. Sometimes it’s worked well and other times I had no phone calls at all.
Posters In most neighborhoods you can find some place to put up a poster to advertise your business. I use posters with tear-off tabs with my contact details. Put at least 5 posters in different locations such as your local library, university, cafe, laundromat, supermarket, lunch rooms at large offices, community notice boards, etc. Don’t forget to check back and replace posters if needed. This is a great low-effort method.
Party Swap Arrange a party swap with a consultant or distributor from another party plan. This of course means you’ll be hosting a party for another company and they’ll be hosting a party for you. It’s a fun way to get a booking as you’ll have an evening of fun with your friends and you’ll have a chance to watch another consultant at work and see if you can pick up some ideas from them. Consultants make great party hosts because they understand how it all works and how to make it fun and successful. They are often eager to help a sister out too!
Neighborhood Catch Up/Get to Know You Host your own party at your house for your neighbors. If you don’t know your neighbors that well, you can make it a ‘get to know you’ party or if you’re more familiar with them it can be a ‘catch up’ party. Make it fun, casual with plenty of time to chat.
Email Newsletter Start gathering customer email addresses to send them updates. You can let them know about sales and special offers, new catalogs, new party themes, and new products. You can use a free email service like Mailchimp to create beautiful emails and you’ll also be able to see who opens their emails and who doesn’t. It might be a small percentage of people that take action from the emails, but as your list grows you’ll pick up some orders, bookings, and maybe even new team members. Remember, don’t send emails without permission, you don’t want to be a spammer.
Business Box If you have some spare products or testers that are just gathering dust at home, put them together in a nice box or basket and drop it at a business in your local area. Make sure to include some catalogs, order forms, and host offers for parties. It’s a good idea to have a special gift or incentive to bribe someone to be ‘in charge’ of the box at the business (eg. the receptionist). Leave the box at the business for a few days and then retrieve your box or basket and any orders.

What would you add to this list? Have you been in a bit of a slump or on pause and had to restart? What did you do?

Goals – Why they Matter to Direct Sellers

Goals. Why they matter and why you need to write them down.

Goals are everything to me.

Goals provide focus and motivation. They create energy and excitement.

If you don’t have a clearly defined goal that excites you, you’ll end up drifting along…not going anywhere. I had a significant experience with this phenomenon.

For quite some time, my big hairy goal was to reach the top of my company’s career plan. Once I achieved this goal I did not set a new goal in my direct sales business. I drifted along, not growing my business for a few years before I realized my mistake.

Then I set new goals and felt inspired and motivated to achieve those again.

But it’s not enough to have goals in your mind. You must write down your goals. It also helps to say them out loud so you can hear them, not just in your mind but with your ears.

Let me try to convince you of how important it is to actually write down your goals:
A few years ago, researchers at Yale university conducted research into goal setting. They revisited a class of students 20 years after they had graduated. The researchers found that the 3% of students who had written down goals when they were studying earned more than the remaining 97% of the class combined!

If that doesn’t convince you to start writing down your direct sales goals, I don’t know what will….

I take writing down my goals so seriously that I invested in this amazing planner that helps me not only to plan my month and week, but also helps me to set goals and keep me on track. And I’m achieving them faster than ever before!

(And yes, that’s an affiliate link – I love this planner SO much I’m happy to promote it and associate my name with it!)

I firmly believe that without goals, you have no compass. Goals give your life meaning and direction and help you to get what you want.

So, to get started today on your goal setting journey, grab the goal planning printable below!

I’d also love to hear what your goals are. Please share them in the comments…that will help you feel even more committed to achieving them

How to Be a Mumpreneur

I run a successful direct sales business and I am also a Mom of 3 children. And these two identities are not mutually exclusive. (Well, most of the time…) I’ve been running a direct selling business for sixteen years now and I’ve built it up to a multi-million dollar turnover. During that time I achieved my Masters Degree, I had 3 children, and I moved to a completely new area. And I’ve only been able to do that because I work in the direct selling industry. I believe that the direct selling industry is a perfect industry for women because you can run a successful, profitable business and be an engaged mother at the same time. There are no glass ceilings and you can make the business as big or small as you want to. For the past fifteen years I’ve loved my work and I’ve talked up the virtues of the direct selling industry to anybody who’d listen. But it didn’t hit me how valuable this flexibility really is until my 6-year old daughter was diagnosed with acute leukemia nearly 2 years ago.

Running a business from a hospital room

With my direct selling business I have been able to work from my daughter’s hospital room. Other parents I’ve met on the paediatric oncology ward have had to give up their job or put their career on hold, causing further stress in the family. But I’ve been able to keep my business going, keep my sanity by giving me an outlet for my own needs, and continue to provide an income. All the while I can also support my daughter as she’s battling this illness, and continue to be a mother for my other two children. I don’t know of any other industry where you can do that! As you can see I’m pretty passionate about the direct selling industry. And this passion has led me to establish Direct Sales Inspiration. I want to help as many women as possible achieve their dreams in this industry and enjoy the fabulous flexibility that I’ve been able to enjoy.

Learn to work in snatches of time

The biggest tip I have for budding business Mom’s is: Don’t expect to work 9-5. Work when the children are asleep. Work when they are at school, pre-school, or day-care. Work when they’re with the grandparents. Find snatches of time where you can work on your business. Here are some ideas to help you to do that:

Take multi-tasking to the next level. You can make business calls while you’re walking a little one in a pram. Make sure you’re ready to go on your business calls when you go for a walk and you’ll be working on your business, providing stimulation to your child and getting exercise. Win!
Create task folders for everything you need to do on a particular part of your business. Set it up so that you can just grab it and take it with you. You’ll be amazed how productive you can be while you’re waiting at gymnastics or swimming lessons.
If you have to do coaching-type calls with people, hold group calls or tele-conferences so you don’t have to keep covering the same ground with different people. Group the calls into topics and allow multiple people to benefit from them.
Download training materials onto your tablet or phone so that you can access them when you have a few spare minutes. Always have some training or inspirational videos or audio books ready to go.
For one or more nights a week, organize “Office Evenings”. As soon as your partner arrives home, you go to the office to get some work done. By having an agreement in place you won’t get stuck in the “could you do….while I …..” conversations. Kids will soon get used to it too.
Get up an hour before the kids so you can get the most important tasks for that day done.
Have “work toys”. These are special toys for the kids that they only get to play with while you need to do work. They’re great for those times you absolutely have to get something finished or take a call while the kids are with you. You can also use a tablet with a few games or YouTube videos that they only get access to while you’re working.

Always be ready to knock over some work

These are the things that have worked for me, they may not work for you. However, it’s the mind-set that counts. That attitude of always being ready to work on your business, ensuring you’re always ready to knock over a task when the opportunity presents itself. If you develop that attitude, then you can develop your own practices to suit your business and family life. Also, check these video interviews for more ideas and experiences of Mumpreneurs. Update: I recently found this amazing direct sales planner. I it so much that I’m excited to promote it. It helps me to set goals and I can plan out my month, my week, my social media, my follow-ups….I can plan EVERYTHING in the one place. Check it out here.

Podcast Review for Direct Sellers

Sometimes we just need a shot of pure inspiration and motivation to get us going.

The direct sales industry can be like a roller-coaster….sometimes you’re on your way up, up, up – then you go down, down, down!

I’ve found it’s best not to wait for the next ‘down’ to seek inspiration and motivation, but to keep it up as a regular practice.

I make it a habit to stay in the ‘zone’ with a regular dose of podcast goodness. During the times when I’m not feeling it, when I’m a little flat, I seek out more episodes but I always have something on the go.

So let’s have a look at 3 of my faves.

The Mind Aware Show – Dana Wilde

Dana has had a very successful direct sales business in the past so her expertise is very relevant. Although the podcast doesn’t cater exclusively to us direct sellers, it’s always interesting and useful.

Some episodes are completely her own content but she also does interviews with successful people who talk about something that’s relevant to business or personal development.

The focus of The Mind Aware Show is “mindset” and how to stay positive. I firmly believe that success in the direct selling industry comes 80% from mindset and 20% from skills, knowledge, and execution. And this podcast helps you with that 80%, so add it to your playlist today!

Direct Sales Social Marketing with Sassy Suite – Sassy Suite

This conversational podcast is both entertaining and incredibly useful. The hosts usually interview someone of interest within the industry. The primary focus is on social media marketing for direct sellers but they also discuss other areas related to direct selling.

The episodes are short, easy to listen to and full of great tips. This podcast helps you to develop that 20%!

The Lucky Bitch – Denise Duffield-Thomas

Denise Duffield-Thomas is passionate about helping women remove their mental money blocks so they can achieve outrageous success. She talks about the law of attraction and practical ways to use it in your life. She regularly interviews other inspirational women as well.

What I love about The Lucky Bitch is that Denise keeps it real. She’s down to earth despite her international success and multi-million dollar income.

I feel like I can really connect with what she says. Sometimes it’s even like she’s reading my mind! The fact that she has an Australian accent and happens to live in my hometown of course doesn’t hurt either .

(But if you’re not Australian, don’t hold that against her! Most of her fans are American – they love her over there just as much as we do here.)

If you want practical, down to earth advice on achieving massive success in your life, pop this podcast on your playlist.

3 Books for Direct Sellers

I think I’ve mentioned before that I love my Audible subscription… I love to get inspired, get motivated and learn more while I’m driving, while I’m doing chores…anytime I have headspace! So, today I have 3 new favorites for you. Pop them on your wish list or playlist today!

The Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg

Have you ever wondered how some people manage to move forward in business and life so quickly? Or how some people can break negative patterns and behaviors and others can’t seem to? Charles Duhig has found the answer: small, consistent habits. I found this book fascinating and very entertaining. Charles explains the science behind success in an easy to understand way. He also talks you through some very interesting cast studies where success was achieved as a result of small changes to habits. This book might just unlock a whole new world of opportunity for you, both in business and in life. I highly recommend it.

Be a Party Plan Superstar – Mary Christensen

I’ve talked before about another book by Mary Christensen, but I also adore Be a Party Plan Superstar. This book is aimed at people that are fairly new to the direct selling industry and provides a pretty solid foundation in knowledge and skills required to build a successful direct selling business. I didn’t read this book when I was new in the industry. Instead I was introduced to this book when I already had a multi-million dollar turnover in my business. But I still found this a useful book and used it as a “check-up” for my own business. And I did find areas to improve! I also used it to gain an understanding of what a new consultant needs. So I used this book in my personal business and as a leader. Add this one to your list too

Eat that Frog – Brian Tracy

A huge obstacle in business – and in life – is procrastination. I think we all know the feeling! In the book Eat that Frog, Brian Tracy provides 21 ways (!) to beat procrastination and how to get stuff done. It would have been so easy for me to do nothing in my business in the past eighteen months since my daughter was diagnosed with acute leukemia. Instead I chose to apply the strategies in this book to maintain focus and move forward in the pockets of time I managed to find. I found the concept of doing the toughest things first incredibly liberating! By getting the hard tasks out of the way first each day, I felt so much lighter….I didn’t have that lingering dread hanging over me. And because I started to tackle the tough tasks first I felt fresher and I could think more clearly. It was so much easier to do the hard things first than putting it off to the last minute (often late at night), which would add stress to the mix when I really didn’t need any more! If you’re a procrastinator or want to be able to get more done, this is your book!

These three books should keep you busy for a while. Let me know in the comments which book has been helpful for you…

Moet Moments

Have you ever heard the saying:

Success breeds success.

Having success leads to more success. And if you take the time to celebrate your small wins on the journey to your direct sales goals, you’re far more likely to achieve your big hairy goals!

Allowing yourself to celebrate each win along the way will help to anchor the experience in your mind.

The enjoyment of the achievement will last longer and embed in your subconscious mind. This will help you to keep both your conscious and subconscious mind on track to repeat that wonderful feeling of success….leading to more success!

I celebrate “Moët Moments” (yes, I’ve named it after the champagne).

Each week I set a small goal that will help me reach my larger goals. When I achieve that weekly goal, I celebrate it with a glass of Moët because it feels like a special treat that I don’t indulge in often.

But don’t dwell on the champagne part. Your Moët Moment could be anything….a night out at the movies, a massage, a long indulgent soak in the bath, gourmet chocolate, having the ironing done for you…. anything that’s a treat for you. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money but it does have to feel special to you for it to work.

I know it’s easier to just tick off your task and move on to the next one.

But you’ll actually achieve more success faster if you enjoy the journey and savor the wins along the way. Plus it’s enjoyable!

Below I’m sharing my Moët Moment worksheets. They come as 2 on one A4 page and I’m sure you’ll love using them.

Download them today and share your wins with us in the comments. I’d also love to hear how you celebrate your Moët Moment.

April Bookworm Update

Book recommendations for #DirectSellers and #PartyPlan consultants.

I’m a massive reader but I don’t actually read…as such. I’m an audiobook fan, I get read-to.

I treat my car as a rolling university. Folding laundry is a joy when I’m listening and learning.

Waiting for the kids becomes another opportunity for self-development.

I’m also a sharer. I like to share the awesome books that inspired me. Or the books that taught me things. Or the books that motivated me. So every now and then I’ll post an article to give you a little update on my new favorites.

The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins

I’m crushing so hard on Mel Robbins right now…so forgive me in advance for gushing. This book has been a life saver!

When my daughter was diagnosed with leukemia I used this book to help me build the coping skills I needed right then.

I used this book’s simple strategies to continue moving forward in my life and my business. She explained how I can stop negative thoughts in their tracks and maintain a positive attitude. And although her strategies are simple, they work!

The strategies are also fabulous for increasing motivation and ending procrastination. I am so much better at getting the “hard stuff” done now.

It is a must read for every direct seller who wants to grow, for every party plan superhero who wants to expand her comfort zone, for every person who wants to jump into new things, and for everyone who wants to focus on the positives in life – but has a hard time doing so. So get it!

Be A Recruiting Superstar by Mary Christensen

I have been so lucky that I got to attend a training session with Mary Christensen. She’s so engaging, relatable and full of fantastic advice.

In her books, her real-life personality shines through! All her books are easy to read and full of information. But my favorite is Be A Recruiting Superstar because I changing people’s lives by introducing them to my direct sales business.

I also love this particular book because it contains some fascinating insight into direct seller’s personality types. And you can use that insight in your approach when talking to people about your business opportunity. If you would like a little taste of that, take this quiz.

Besides, who doesn’t want to be a superstar?

I Know How She Does It by Laura Vanderkam

Look at that strong woman on the cover! I loved this book.

It’s an entertaining book with some interesting case studies that I could relate to. I also picked up quite a few new tips and tricks for managing my time and working around my family.

But that’s not the biggest gain I got from this book.

After reading I Know How She Does It, I had a new perspective on the the concept of “balance”. Too often as women we feel pressure to be all things to all people all of the time.

But this book opened my eyes to the idea that balance can – and should be – viewed over a longer time frame. Say a week or a month – not necessarily day to day. Sometimes we need to focus on our career or business and work hard and put in the hours. Sometimes we need to be home, with our children.

This book taught me I don’t need to feel guilty. I’d feel guilty when I was working because I wasn’t with the kids and I felt guilty when was with the kids because I wasn’t working on my business…you know that merry-go-round? I’ve learned that there is enough time for everything and everyone, including time for self-care.

If you have children AND a career or business, this is essential reading!

These 3 fantastic books should keep you going for while. And they’ll help you to go for your direct sales dreams!

If you want to continue learning and growing in your business, check out these resources to take you deeper into recruiting, making the most of games, attraction marketing and more!

Check out training resources for direct sellers

Plan like a Pro

Working In Your Business vs. Working On Your Business

There’s a difference between working in your business and working on your business. Allow me to explain…

I noticed that when I started to treat my direct sales business as a business, rather than a hobby I did on the side, it started to grow. Massively.

Instead of just doing the parties, working to get bookings, and fulfilling orders (working in my business), I began to work on activities to grow my business (working on my business).

The most important thing I did to make this work was to set aside time to do the things that would help me to get ahead. And I made my business portable so I could work in small pockets of time.

When I started to plan my time across all aspects of my direct sales business to keep a balance in my efforts things started to really improve. I made sure I worked in the business to deliver awesome service and maintain an income now, and I worked on the business for future growth.

Balancing your energies and efforts is important. For example, if you only spend your time and energy on finding new people to sponsor, you will soon run out of party bookings and your business and orders will fizzle out. But if you only spend time on getting new bookings, you’re not growing your team and you’re running on the spot (just faster).

Like the circus act, you have to keep all the plates spinning or they’ll fall and break!

Planner

To help me maintain that balance and keep myself focused, I developed my own weekly planner.

I found using this planner to be super helpful because once I started to actually allocate times, I stopped trying to do everything all the time. I stopped replying to messages, making host coaching calls, or be on social media while really I wanted to be with my children.

Now I could be with the children and give them my full attention because that was time I had freed specifically to be with them.

During the times I had allocated for business activities, I was able to focus and be more productive because I wasn’t trying to do 5 things at once while feeling guilty for not spending enough quality time with the children.

I also negotiated times with my husband to work in my home office for a few evenings while he organized the kids so I could work on my business, adding to my available work time.

Using the planner stopped me from feeling overwhelmed because the boundaries between work and home life were no longer blurred.

When I was with the children, that was my time with the children. When I was at work, I could focus fully on work and be productive.

Using the planner also helped to plan other important activities for myself, such as exercise, date nights, etc. Self-care is important and the planner helped me to make time for it.

To-Do List & Making Business Portable

To focus my work time, I used specific to-do lists for each aspect of my business, such as party bookings, sponsoring, host coaching, etc. This meant I could walk to my office and be immediately productive because I always knew what I had to do.

Additionally, I created folders for each of those aspects of my business. This way I could grab a folder and start work and have everything on hand that I needed.

This also made my business portable.

If I had some waiting time, for example waiting at gymnastics or basketball, I could grab a folder and my to-do list and make these times incredibly productive. Waiting for the kids never felt like wasted time.

Even if you only have 15 minutes, you’ll be surprised by how much you can get done if you’re organised and ready to work.

Over the years I’ve trained many people on this system (using a weekly planner, business to-do lists and portable folders) in their direct sales business. The people who actually implemented this system reported a big boost to their business and a big increase in the quality of life as their work-life balance improved.

How to Use the System

Planner

Grab the Planner download and print it off. You’ll find a timed version and a version without times so you can put your own time blocks in.

You’ll notice that it’s divided in hourly blocks of time and the days of the week. Now cross out the times you definitely can’t work on your business because you have other commitments.

Also cross out the times you need to keep fee for personal time, such as exercise, time with family, etc. Alternatively you can write in these time blocks what you’re doing.

Now look at the times you have left. That’s the time you can allocate to working on your business. Grab a highlighter or colored pens and allocate some time to each aspect of your business (bookings, sponsoring, host coaching, customer care, social media, or other).

Some people like to write in the time blocks what activity they’re doing, some people use color coding and highlighters. Use whatever works best for you.

To-Do Lists

Grab the To-Do List download and print it off.

On the sheet you can see the different headings that correspond with different aspects of most direct sales businesses. There’s also an unlabeled spot for your specific needs (or you can use it for notes). Now sort all your business activities for this week under the various headings.

Folders

Use the To-Do List headings for your folders. You can put everything you need to complete the tasks in these folders so you can easily grab them when you have a pocket of time. So you’d have a Host Coaching folder, a Bookings folder, a Sponsoring folder, etc.

So there you have it: the complete system to plan time to work in your business and on your business and you’ve made your business portable!

I’d love to hear how you implement these tools in your business and which topics you add to your planners. Remember to send me a message and let me know.

Anything worth doing, is worth doing badly

How to beat perfectionism and learn to accept "good enough".

If you find it hard to complete things because they are “not good enough” yet, then you’re letting ‘perfect’ be the enemy of ‘good’.

What I mean is that sometimes we have this idea of what something should be like, the perfect, and we are striving to reach it.

But you never will, because perfection is impossible.

I want you to give yourself permission, right now, to not be perfect. None of us are perfect and none of us ever achieve perfection. And that’s OK.

And this idea of perfection and reaching perfection is holding people back, it’s incredibly paralyzing but if something isn’t perfect than that automatically means you’ll have failed.

You are Good enough

What you need is to adopt an attitude of “good enough” or even “bad but finished”. That way there’s so much more scope to be successful and there’ll be less fear of failure.

If your business Facebook page isn’t perfect, that’s fine, as long as it’s good enough.

If your emails aren’t perfect, that’s okay as long as they’re good enough and you get your message out.

Your exercise routine probably isn’t perfect, but that doesn’t matter as long as you get yourself moving regularly it’s good enough.

Buying a new car is fraught with decisions and for many people causes anxiety. But you don’t need to find the perfect car! You just need to find one that is good enough for your purposes.

Pareto Principle

Have you ever heard of the Pareto Principle? It’s also known as the 80-20 rule which states that it usually takes 20 percent of the time to complete 80 percent of a task. However, to complete the last 20 percent of the task, it takes 80 percent of the effort.

So at 80 percent completion, can you perhaps declare it “good enough”? What else do you need to do to finish right now? Knowing that that last 20 percent takes 80 percent of the effort and that perfection is impossible, it makes no sense to continue working away at something that is already good enough.

Experience the freedom of doing it badly

Perfection is especially detrimental to creativity. Let me give you a quick experience of this. Grab a piece of paper and a pen. I want you to come up with 5 great ideas for booking games. They must be new ideas, creative, and innovative, and perfect. You have 5 minutes….start now!

Do you have any ideas yet?

Okay. Grab a new piece of paper and write down 5 bad ideas for sponsoring people in your organisation. Just 5 ridiculously bad recruiting ideas. You have 5 minutes again….go now!

Do you have ideas now?

What happened? If you’re like most people, you had a lot more ideas in the second activity because you gave yourself permission to come up with any and all ideas. Most people find it easier and more fun than the first activity, where you were looking for great ideas. Trying to be great or perfect stifles creativity. It paralyzes you.

Now what would happen if you actually put on a timer for ten minutes, wrote down every bad idea for sponsoring games, recruiting seeds, conversation starters, etc. that you could think of? I think you’ll you would write down plenty of bad ideas and some good enough ideas that could actually work.

Letting go of perfection is freeing.

Stop perfectionism from holding you back from direct sales success.

Giving yourself permission to do it “badly” lets you get on with the job and get things done. And by getting things done you keep the momentum going.

So how do you ensure that what you do is actually good enough? By focusing on the process. Try to make the process better, don’t focus too much on the end result. For example, by making your parties and events more enjoyable for you, for the host and for the guests, you will increase sales, bookings and recruiting leads.

By doing the process well, the result will be better. So that’s where you want to focus your improvements, not on the end result.

Because focusing too much on the end result makes you needy, locks you up, takes the joy out of the process and leads to perfectionism.

And perfection is the enemy of good and the enemy of done.