I was finishing up my masters program, in a class I truly hated.
Sitting through the class was like sitting in the middle of the desert while a sandstorm blew all around you, the sun a steady 118 degrees with zero moisture… seriously dry and boring!
The class was statistics.
I’m actually not sure if it was the teacher or the topic that contributed to the difficulty 95% of the students had in staying engaged.
I say this because in high school I took a equally boring class in biology, so much so that I ended up not passing and to my utter horror ended up having to repeat it during summer school. The contrast between teachers however, made all the difference. I absolutely loved the summer school class. Same subject, same content, but taught in an entirely fun and enjoyable way. I aced it by the way.
In high school I didn’t really care about grades, probably because I had entrepreneurial parents who didn’t buy into the dogma that traditional school was the gateway to achieving success as an adult.
But when I committed to completing my MBA after several years of marriage and a kid and a half later (I was pregnant with #2) all that changed. I didn’t have scholarships or parents in a position to pay for my education so I wasn’t going to settle for anything less than an A. I was going all in!
I set the intention, focused on the end-game and did what I needed to do to make it happen. Six years later, with only a few classes left to go and child number 3 on the way, I knew I was going to graduate with a 4.0. I had done it!
At least that’s what I thought…
My third child was born 7 days before the last day of my statistics class and it was a requirement and a big chunk of the grade to give a final group presentation. There was no rescheduling, family time-off, or personal situational consideration. You presented or you got stuck with a less than stellar grade – um…. ya… not an option!
So there I was holding a 7 day old baby (we won’t get into why I had to bring her along – trust me it wasn’t my first choice) in front of the class trying to give a statistical presentation. It started off fine but anyone who’s had a newborn knows, they seem to have not-so-perfect timing. After the crying started…. it was all over. I wasn’t going to impress anyone with my numbers, let alone the teacher.
I excused myself and went into the ladies bathroom to nurse. If it wasn’t for the fact that a room full of my peers watched me walk out and was probably waiting for my return entrance, I would have been crying right along side my infant inside the cramped stall.
When my final grades came in I wasn’t surprised but more hurt. I would have thought for sure the teacher would have given me sympathy points or tenacity points for even showing up knowing I had just given birth. After six years of A’s I got my first B+. I freaked!
Getting over perfectionism is something I have to be mindful of to this day. I see this same type of perfectionism in my clients and how it holds entrepreneurs back from showing up as their most authentic self. Somewhere along the journey, we’ve picked up that we have to be perfect. For me it was a lot of little things that added up to one biggie. For you it might be one prominent memory, comment or situation.
But left unchecked, perfectionism can kill the most badass business idea – it literally happens every minute of every day. It’s one of the 24 business blocks we focus on clearing inside the Business Blockbuster Bootcamp™.
If you’ve got perfection paralysis, check out the course Business Blockbuster Bootcamp™. Inside the course we focus on clearing 24 of the most common business blocks that keep entrepreneurs stuck in self-sabotage.
See you inside
You got this! Wendy
p.s. Course starts in September – the sales page will be linked within the next few days, so be sure to bookmark this page and check it out.
