Deadlines as Allies: How to Beat Perfectionism and Stay Focused (BKI 49)

Hi, this is Diana. Bright Knowledge Instants give you one thing you can do today to move your creativity ahead. And right now, I am under one of the biggest deadlines of my life. I need to submit my book to my publisher this summer. And the book is about the Bright Knowledge system. And I was speaking to my friend Robin about this yesterday, and I said, thank God for deadlines.

Deadlines are my allies. And she said, deadlines as allies. That's interesting. So how do I conceive of this? Well, with deadlines, what they do is they help me finish things. Otherwise I would be in total research mode all the time because everything is so interesting. You could research absolutely forever. When I see a deadline as an ally, as something positive, this really makes me feel inspired. It gives me momentum, and it honestly makes me prioritize what I'm doing.

So how do we keep deadlines as a positive thing rather than some kind of external oppression, which is very easy to do. And sometimes I do that. Well, when I remember the real reason, the heart reason, that I'm doing that deadline, then it's so much easier to feel great about it. So what's my purpose with the book? Well, I really want to share the Bright Knowledge system. I think this will be a great thing for the world.

So when I keep that feeling front and center, then I can get down to writing my 55,000 words. And that's with many, many, many iterations as well. I can feel on fire to do it when I remember the purpose. But if I just think I've got to get 55,000 words in, but June, then I'm like, oh, can I really do that? I don't worry. I stay focused on the real reason.

And then there are two side effects that happen from deadlines that are fabulous. One is, as I mentioned, it makes you make the thing a priority. There are a thousand things in our day that are clamoring for our time. But when we have a deadline, suddenly the time appears for that thing. The classic example is a performance. Oftentimes we don't have enough time to perform practice. But when we have a performance, well, the time appears.

And the other thing is it lets us let go of perfection. You know, the deadline will come and there it's going to be. The thing is going to have to be turned in at that time. With aiming for perfection, we would never finish anything because we would never get to that perfect state. As soon as you reach near perfection, you see a whole new horizon open up. Anyway, so for all these reasons, deadlines are a positive thing if you keep your real purpose for your deadline front and center in heart and mind and remember the wonderful side effects that my deadline is helping me make something important to me a big priority.

And it's also giving me permission to let go of perfection. It's going to be the best it can absolutely be for that moment. So try that out today. Keeping your deadlines as allies. Bye.