What happens when you are working toward your goals and you suddenly realize that you aren’t going to accomplish that important goal fully. Or you are going to miss the deadline? Or maybe you find out that the goal you set doesn’t actually get you where you need to be?

Those words creep in. I’m not good enough. Who am I to be doing this?

Last week in Episode 40, we talked about measuring progress in a holistic way. Just to quickly recap, we can’t just rely on the numbers we need to make sure that we are using subjective measures as well. These are going to help us look at the whole situation rather than just the black and white picture.

Let’s face it, progress is anything but black and white. It is not clear-cut and especially when we realize that human beings are part of the equation.

Now moving forward this week with our concept of measuring progress I’d like to share something with you that I hear on podcasts time and again. In fact, I listen to all kinds of business professionals and thought leaders and one theme that comes through time loud and clear is the encouragement to remember, “I am enough.”

You see, when something doesn’t work perfectly, it is easy to place blame and often people blame themselves, particularly when they are entrepreneurs. You want to do your absolute best, you want to make sure that you are helping others and serving them to the best of your ability. Those are all noble goals and make you a hero. You are there to help others.

What this doesn’t say is that you need to be perfect, know everything, or have all of your ducks in a row right now all at once.

How many times have you wondered to yourself, “Do I know enough to help this client?” “Am I qualified enough to reach out to the local chiropractor and share my services?” “Do I have enough experience to guide others on their journey?”

You know what all of those questions have in common? Two things. The first is that you want to avoid failure. As human beings we are hardwired to want to avoid failure. I’ll talk more about that in a minute. The second thing that all of these scenarios, and more, have in common is the word, “enough”.

Lets break this down. Do you want to avoid failure? Of course! Do you want to make sure that you are successful? Of course! We like to feel confident, forward-thinking, and sure of what we are doing. We don’t want to fail.

Are you ready to hear what the great thought leaders often say?

“There is no failure, only learning”

“Progress over perfection.”

“Just take action”

“Get scrappy to find a way forward”

“Perfection is procrastination in disguise”

All of these indicate that we need to reframe how we think about the situation. What if you were to remove the concept of failure from your vocabulary? That neural pathway in your brain would slowly shrivel as it is no longer used. While that pathway that tells us we might fail shrivels up, new pathways are being formed. The ones that remind us that each step is progress. That perfection is not necessary or required. That taking action is the right action regardless of the outcome.

These positive pathways become stronger and stronger the more we use them and shifts our mindset from being fixed to one that says we can grow and learn.

Let me give you an example that happened just this week. I am working on a new workshop for the Coaching Hive as part of a peer entrepreneur community that I participate in. I had a few ideas and we were tasked with posting the idea to see if it got traction and if it did, great! You move forward with that workshop idea. I followed the format suggested, posted, and