Momentum Is More Important Than Perfection

“Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant.”

There is a lot of wisdom packed in those eight words. They were spoken by King Solomon about 3000 years ago and are recorded in one of his books of wisdom (Ecclesiastes 11:4 NLT).

Another quote (attributed to Zig Ziglar and a few others) is:

“You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.”

Wally Bock (threestarleadership.com) said it this way in his June 2 post:

“A little planning helps you stay on track. A lot of planning slows you down. Plan enough to get started, then adjust as needed.”

Because I am cursed with perfectionism, I tend to be an over-planner. I am prone to wait for the perfect time: the market at the bottom (who is that smart?), weather 72 and sunny, every pro and con identified and evaluated, 100% consensus (who ever gets that?), and so on.

As the years have gone by, a bit of wisdom has seeped in (only a bit), and I now realize that momentum is more important than perfection. As Wally Bock said, it is often better to “get started, then adjust.” If you know where you are (reality) and where you want to go (vision), then GO! There is bound to be at least one thing you can do—today.

I think I’ll take my own advice. I have a 500-part model of the Wright Brothers replica in a box. I’m not sure what I have been waiting for, but the first step of my plan is to take it out of the box and read the instructions. I don’t need to wait for perfection to do that, so I’ll do that today. By mid-afternoon, I’ll have some momentum. Then tomorrow….

What are you waiting for?

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