Putting off a project until you have all the details right seems like common sense. If you only feel that hesitation because you’re afraid to make a mistake, though, you’ll never actually finish.


As business site Entrepreneur explains, fear of mistakes leads to inaction. If you can’t finish a project until it’s flawless, you’ll never finish anything. Believing that you can actually avoid all mistakes is a delusion. Learn to accept that you’re going to screw up sometimes and pull the metaphorical trigger anyway. Finishing is better than doing it flawlessly:

All too many of us grew up learning that mistakes are bad. We walk through life on eggshells, trying desperately not to take a wrong step. When we live this way, we can’t learn from our mistakes and grow into new possibilities. Retrain your brain to know that mistakes happen, and it’s okay that they do. The most important thing is what you learn from a mistake about how to do better next time. The mark of a successful person is not based on how few mistakes they make, but on how quickly they get back up, learn from mistakes and move forward.


Once you finish, you can work on cleaning up the mistakes. You can find the areas where you can improve and get to work on them. First, you have to get there. Don’t be so afraid of failure that you never finish in the first place.

Getting Real About Your Delusions Will Remove What Blocks Your Success | Entrepreneur