Here’s a hint: they don’t exist. Michelle Elman explores the hard work behind those applauded accomplishments, and delves into what really holds us back from achieving the same…
When you see someone touting their wins on social media, it is easy to be jealous of their success – but are you also envious of their hard work? It can be natural to rip the accomplishment out of context of the work it required to get there, and make ourselves feel bad that we haven’t achieved the same thing, or something comparable yet, but it’s important to look at the big picture. Would you still have felt jealous if all they had to show for their hard work was failure?
I recently relaunched my podcast, ‘In All Honesty’, after a two-year hiatus, and it hit all the charts. We were named one of the best podcasts of the week by The Guardian, we were top three in education charts, as well in the top 100 in the whole of UK, and I’m sure there would be someone looking at these accolades wishing that their podcast relaunch would reach the same heights. But the truth is, it didn’t always.
For two years, I ran the podcast by myself. The audio quality was rubbish, there was no video element, and it was recorded in my bedroom with the third microphone I had bought, because no matter which one I tried, the sound quality just never seemed to improve. My editing was dodgy, and each mediocre episode would take eight hours of my week just to put out, and yet I launched it anyway.
For two years, I released weekly episodes, because done is better than perfect. I have always wanted a podcast, and I didn’t let not being ready, or not having the team I wanted stop me from doing what I envisioned. All of that to say, when I met the dream podcast team that I had been looking for, I had something to show for it, and a really big part of me believes that if I hadn’t launched my subpar version of the podcast initially, I wouldn’t have been able to sign with the team I have now. My old podcast not only demonstrated what I could do, but it was proof that I had an interest in podcasting, and had such a passion that I had persevered, alone for years.
So yes, it’s easy to look at my launch and see the charts, and be envious, but the truth is I didn’t chart once for two years. But I kept going anyway, because I believe if you know you are good, it’s your duty to keep going! We often want to wait until something is perfect to launch, and that’s just not the way it works in real life.
It makes me think back to when I first trained as a life coach, and was the first person in my class to launch a website. After six months, I met up with a few of my peers, and two of them still hadn’t finalised their own ones – they said they weren’t ready. In that time, not only had I got a full client roster, but I had redesigned my website three times. Yes, it was an immense waste of money, but I only learned what I wanted to specialise in and how to customise my website by doing. I learned by actually being in the job, and course-correcting every time I realised one topic brought me more joy than others, and my website would follow suit, removing the treatment plans I didn’t enjoy as much, and putting more in the area that I would end up specialising in.
We have to feel ready to leap before we are ready, and I truly believe the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t get off the starting line, is they launch before everything is sorted to the final detail, they figure it out as they go. We get scared of putting something out into the world that’s imperfect, because others might judge us, but the only people who are judging are the ones doing less than us. As the saying goes, perfect is the enemy of good, and getting a ‘good enough’ mentality is something I attribute most of my success to.
Do you know how many wannabe authors have never submitted their manuscript to an agent, because they think it’s not quite ready? Do you know how many people are sitting there tweaking their CV thinking that changing a sentence here and there is going to seriously affect their success rate? The truth is it’s easy to hide between these tiny details instead of admitting it’s scary to put yourself out there. One of the key things that helps me hit submit is remembering that we spend 95% of our time tweaking the last 5%. The content of your work will always be more important than the tiny details, and even authors have editors!
Whenever you start anything, you will never be as good as if you keep going, but we all have to start somewhere. So, don’t beat yourself up with the imaginary image of an overnight success that feels like an impossible standard to hold yourself to – because it is. Rather, celebrate the courage it takes to take each step and put yourself out there, especially the first.
Photo of Michelle Elman | Kiran Gidda
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