One of my favorite teachers and coaches, Brooke Castillo, talks on her podcast about the idea of doing “B- work.” So many of us let the idea of perfectionism stop us from even getting started. Or, we do the work but then we don’t feel like it’s perfect, so we don’t put it out in the world. Brooke encourages her clients to do B- work (rather than A+) and put it out in the world anyway. Because being OK with B- keeps us from being paralyzed.
While she talks about this perspective in the context of business, I think it totally applies to exercise, too. So many people disqualify themselves from fitness because they don’t think they can do it perfectly. The mentality is, “If I can’t run a 7-minute mile, why get on the treadmill at all?” Or, “If I can’t touch my toes, I don’t belong in a yoga class.”
Let me tell you, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. For one, NO ONE does their workout perfectly. I have taught a lot of yoga classes (over 1,000 hours) and I have not seen a single person do an entire practice perfectly. That’s why it’s called a yoga practice, not a performance.
But more importantly, you don’t get results from waiting to start until you can do everything perfectly. B- workouts create change. They create the strength (both physical and mental) to work up to B+ workouts. They create the habit of showing up even when you don’t feel like it, and doing the work even when you’d rather watch Netflix and drink merlot.
I encourage you today to notice where in your life you’re letting perfectionism get in your own way. What if you made the radical decision that it doesn’t matter if you’re any good at something at all? That the strongest/best/smartest people are just out there doing their own version of B-. It doesn’t mean you don’t keep working to improve. It just means you start from where you are now.
Let me know how this is landing for you. I’d love to hear from you.