What if a B- is better than an A?

So, anyone that’s worked with me on coaching, or been in my circle as I learned concepts, knows there have been a couple concepts that my brain was not ready to embrace, probably none more than the concept of B- minus work.

A quick lesson on B- work: it’s the concept that B- is good enough to put out into the world and good enough creates progress, it keep us moving forward. When we constantly strive for A work, we nitpick, we hold back, we research, we procrastinate, we find reasons to not take action (or convince ourselves that our constant running on the hamster wheel is progress!) and ultimately we don’t create as much success as the person who embraces B- work, because they are willing to take the risk and let go of the perfection to make progress.

I fought the concept, and my brain was all sorts of 'total lie', 'not true', let me show you' thoughts running around in there (our brains are so good at lying to us!). I created all sorts of arguments and points, not realizing I was proving the concept out with my actions.

Here is what A mindset Molly did: I waited to launch my website because every page wasn’t perfect; I waited for the 'perfect’ moment to start exercising, journaling, eating better, change sleep patterns and create content; I spent A LOT of time criticizing, judging and rationalizing lack of actions on it not being the right time or not having all the information or needing one more thing before I could start. Ultimately, I was procrastinating, believing that my results would be better if they were perfect, which left me with getting zero results. And it reminded me of one of my favorite quotes: 'don't let perfect be the enemy of good' (Voltaire for those who like to know the source!). And, to be honest, once I really started doing the work on the concept of B- work, I realized how much inaction I had from from the A mindset. The the lightbulb went off for me - what if a B- was actually better than an A???

Wait, what? READ THAT AGAIN. What if a B- was actually better than an A??? We have been trained to be achievers, to get the best scores, the highest grades and yet, as I have learned over and over again, so much of my success is built on the foundation of failure and learning. So, what if the B- actually gets me better results? What if it allows me the creative space to come back to my website and tweak the content, without the feeling of needing to get everything perfect on day one? What if it helps me shake the fear of failure and let's me see the value in it? What if B- work actually shows me how my identity of being a perfectionist is not serving me or my goals? That's the thing about uncovering our beliefs and how they impact our outcomes - the very thing we think makes us successful is often times the thing that is keeping us from getting the results we want.

As I continue to work on the concept of B- work, I am having so much fun learning how to try things and put things out there and, while there is still work to be done, I know that my B- is going to get me better results than any A I have ever received. At the end of the day, progress, not perfection, has always been the goal and using B- work might just be the secret to achieving more than I ever have.

What goal is waiting for you to embrace B- work so you can reach it?