Stop editing yourself, start living!

 When you write a book at some point you have to stop editing. Back in 2015 I wrote my first book. I edited it 27 times. I distinctly recall looking at my pizza in the oven and hoping it would cook quicker only to later realise that I’d never turned the oven on at all. Personal development is much like writing a book. You can be a perfectionist and decide wholeheartedly that the work will never be over. And to be fair, if you foster the growth mindset the work doesn’t end but it’s how you edit your life in the personal development that reinforces empowering or devastating beliefs.

Like the perfectionist who tears their page out when they make one simple mistake or the business owner who doesn’t hit send or publish on content because they want certainty that it will succeed before they take action, professional development lovers have to have a boundary. After all know one started reading professional development to constantly reinforce that their not enough yet oddly this is what people can end up internalising in their personal life, in business and it leaves them underperforming not succeeding like their vision board dreams depicted.

Through coaching I’ve often met women who have done it all. They’ve paid for coaches, mentors, new personal development, new professional development, they’ve signed up for the business programs & even buy courses that mimic the exact courses they’ve purchased from a different business. Through it all these women never put a stop on where development would go on pause and living would happen.

Personally, I’ve done this a few times in my life. The first time was when I was about 27 and my bookshelves in my house were filled with what a woman should have to do to qualify to meet the love of her life. The second time was when I decided that I will no longer read professional development books but instead get back to reading for pleasure and I picked up lighthearted reads, travel and adventure stories and more recently romantasy (thank you Fourth Wing). The third time was recently where I decided to make a pact with myself that I would not invest in another piece of learning about business. Not because they weren’t plenty of resources, mentors, coaches and programs that were worth it but because I was worth more than reiterating to myself that I need something else other than knowledge I had already gained.

I think you can resonate with me on this. How many times have you met someone, had a casual conversation about business or life and heard the words come out of your mouth only to pause briefly and go..holy shit I know my stuff? I think this happens to women all the time and it’s because we focus on what’s next instead of what we know now. You must really integrate your learning into your bettered self in order to truly be present otherwise you waste time on upskilling where the skills already were. You get to the 27th edit & you are still hoping for more.

If this is you right now I want you to pause, make a list of your wins, the knowledge you have know versus the knowledge you had even 3 months ago. Spend time thinking about how that changed the way you turned up for yourself, others and in your business. You are not what you were 6 to 12 months ago, you need to stop behaving like you are and put the god damn personal development down and just honour yourself.