When you set out to make change, or to embark on a bold new venture, there will always be resistance. One common area of resistance is perfectionism and overthinking.

“Perfectionists spend too much time on little difference as the margins at the expense of the important things.” says Ray Dalio.

With a perfectionist mindset, you place too much emphasis on things that don’t matter as much. You focus on reaching an ideal state that is unrealistic at your current state. This can apply to projects and tasks as well as to relationships, experiences, and other areas of responsibility in your life.

A few ways to overcome perfectionism include:

1. Limit the scope of how much time you are willing to spend on something, and then ship what you have within your timeline.
2. Give yourself a deadline for when you will decide on something, and then make the best choice you can with the information you have.
3. Start with your first bad idea or crappy first draft. Use this to create movement and get started, knowing that action and experience will bring more clarity.

This is a question Sarah Peck brought up yesterday during a workshop she hosted.

There are a plethora of things which we could do and unending demands on our time and attention. It takes design and focus to only do the things that matter most. Sometimes it can be nice to have a list of the things you don’t do and don’t bother with in order to create the space for the important stuff.

If you’ve been on my FAB list for business owners, then this is exactly what’s I’ve been doing.

(See also: this fantastic HBR article on the value of Operational Transparency.)

What happens when you have the right goals, and you believe your action plan is dialed in… but your schedule and routines are all out of whack?

How do you solve the problem of: cannot successfully implement the action plan?

You start small. You pick one critical action that is part of your strategy. And you do that one action. Then, repeat. It sounds overly simple, but most functional things are.

I once read that anything worth doing is worth doing poorly. Giving yourself permission to stink will make it easier to begin. And starting is often one of the biggest hurdles of all. A crappy first draft of an email newsletter is far better than no draft at all.

Seth Godin wrote that “the only path to amazing runs directly through not-yet-amazing. But not-yet-amazing is a great place to start, because that’s where you are. For now.”