Often when it comes to our work – or other areas of our lives – we’re our own worst critics. We’re far harsher when it comes to judging ourselves and our work. On the one hand, this can be a good thing. It pushes us to work harder and do better. It keeps us from becoming complacent.
However, harsh self criticism can also hold you back. Too many times we let this self criticism turn into self doubt. When this happens we slow down or even stop. We don’t finish projects because they’re just not quite right. We don’t release a marketing piece because it’s not quite finished. We take months to release a new product that could have been out sooner but it just needed a little work.
Basically we start thinking that what we’re doing isn’t good enough so we spend forever tweaking it. In extreme cases a project never gets finished because it’s never perfect.
Of course in our saner moments we all know that nothing is ever perfect. We just need to get things to the point where they’re good enough to do the job they need to do. Then we need to let go and hope for the best.
But the real problem with being your own worst critic isn’t that it leads down the road to perfectionism. The real problem is people can rarely judge their own work objectively. Sometimes you just don’t know how something is going to be received until you get some feedback.
For example, last week I wrote a blog post: Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter: Which Social Media Site is For You?. When I finished I wasn’t really happy with it; it just didn’t feel like my best work. In fact, I almost scrapped it and started over. But I have a commitment to myself to write three to five posts a week. When I have a long to do list, it’s not easy to delete a completed post. So I posted the article and figured I’d have a shot at doing better tomorrow.
Imagine my surprise when this little blog post started lighting up the internet. I began to get comments about how much the post helped people make a decision about social media. People called me and sent email. This post has become the most read post in the past several weeks. Who knew? Certainly not me.
Talking with my coach I discovered this was not a unique event. She tells me that it’s not uncommon for pastors and ministers to have a similar experience. They write or deliver a sermon that they feel is not their best work and it turns out to really resonate with people.
The point is we can’t always judge our own work objectively. And, we don’t always know what our audience really wants.
Not knowing isn’t a sign of failure. Nobody really knows how work they do will be received until they try. That’s why companies do market research and conduct focus groups. That’s why writers have editors. That’s why marketers do split tests. Because they don’t know how the audience will react until the audience reacts.
So if you’re sitting on a blog post that’s not quite right or a marketing letter that needs a little more work or whatever, stop and do a double check. Maybe this piece that you’re not thrilled with is just what your customers want. But you’ll never know for sure until you put it out there.
Andrea J. Stenberg
Has this ever happened to you? Leave a comment and share your story of how something you weren’t thrilled with turned out to be just right.
