Imperfect Action

I want to talk about one of my favorite little sayings. Imperfect Action. Those two little words drive my entire business. They are the reason I even started this whole shebang. Back in February I went to a conference with my mom. It was called Click Funnels Live. I heard amazing speakers like Tony Robins, Myron Golden, and others. This conference helped me realize that running a business was what I wanted to do.

On the night before the final day of the conference I came up with this idea for With Love, Pixie Rain. At this point my business was a stationary company haha. Mind you I have pretty terrible penmanship and I don't even use cards myself. But I had a plan, and I had a dream.

So I went on namecheap and bought my business domain for $10/year. (Having a name like mine makes finding business names pretty easy and affordable). Throughout the whole conference I was utilizing tools, going down all kinds of business plan rabbit holes and trying to have everything figured out in a matter of two days. Obviously that did not happen. I didn't even start designing my website until two months later. But I had taken what everyone liked to call imperfect action. The biggest tip that I had learned from every single speaker at that conference was not how to make billions, but simply how to start. If I had never bought that name, if I had never kept my stationary brand name, if I had given up on the plane ride home. I would never be here. Telling people that I am starting up a business. 

It’s always fun now telling people what I do. Usually, I would say, “Ohhh, I don't really know I am just kind of working right now, trying to figure out what I really want to do.”  And that would be it. No follow up questions, just a look of pity on the person's face acting like I just doomed myself to a life of unemployment. 

Now, I get to tell people that I am studying pottery and starting my art business. And they want to know what kinds of art I do and when I am going to start selling my items. It is a weird phase to be in though. Like I am in that strange middle section where my business is technically up and running but I'm not selling anything at the moment. So it's just kind of there, hanging in front of you, with the hope that I will eventually get some kind of product out into the world. Either way it makes me really excited about the future.

Taking imperfect action is talked about in the Bible as well. I’ve been reading Ecclesiastes (my fav book in the Bible) and In chapter 11 verse 4 says, “Whoever watches the wind will not plant, and whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.” This verse talks about how there is never going to be the perfect conditions for you to start. If you keep waiting and yearning for the exact right moment you will never achieve what you have dreamed of. You have to put yourself out there, remove yourself from the narrative, if you fail you fail. 

Do you ever have a quote or song or any kind of saying that you really dislike that everyone else seems to adore? Then one day after being an avid hater of the saying, its meaning suddenly hits you in a different way. Like, when I was little I used to hate the saying “not all who wander are lost” I just never understood. Like I got it but at the same time I was just like “why is it on every Jeep tire cover from Texas to Florida?” Then one day a Jeep drove past me with that stupid saying and the weird splatter paint pink and blue background, and the saying hit me. I had a totally new view of it. I no longer thought the saying was stupid, I thought it was genius. 

This happened to me again about a week ago with the saying, “What if I fall, but darling what if you fly.” When I first saw this quote on a Pinterest post featuring Peter Pan and Wendy flying through the air, I fell in love with it. I had it painted on my wall back in middle school. I had it on my phone case, I thought this was the most unique, inspiring, eye-opening quote of all time. To say the least, I was obsessed with it.

Then I started seeing it everywhere. Somehow, my algorithm knew I loved it and decided to make it show up every 5th post. And not only that, the dang Jeep tire covers started taunting me with this quote. After about the 20th car sticker I was done. I painted over the mural, I got a new phone case, I destroyed every piece of the quote that could have been tied to me. And I despised it. It was truly a “from strangers, to lovers, to enemies” trope between me and that saying.

And I truly did not think I could ever like it again in my life, until I was acquainted with “Imperfect Action.” Which is essentially the grown up version of the falling to flying quote. If you can't tell, clearly I have a type in quotes. 

There is a fine line though. Just because the saying is Imperfect Action does not mean you should just start when you have nothing prepared. My problem that I was facing was that I was so scared to announce my website, to actually start posting, to do anything with my business because what if i actually hated it. And that is where the quote comes in. I looked at my bright purple website and said, “welp here goes nothing” and I published it after 3 months of pining over the finished thing wondering if it was good enough. And you know what, I changed the entire look of it two days after it went public. A crap ton of people saw the bright purple and pink version of this website, and I even posted a pole asking which color scheme they liked better, and some people were kind of upset that I changed it to red, cream, and blue. But at the end of the day, I did what made me happy, and I took imperfect action. I couldn’t wait for the right circumstance. I just had to go for it. 

So I hope that you do something this week that makes you question those old annoying quotes. I hope you take a small step or a giant leap toward your dreams. Don’t wait for the perfect setting, spoiler alert, it doesn’t exist. 

Make sure to tell me what you’re doing this week! Also, I want some suggestions on what I should write about! I am going to post some polls and Q+A boxes on my Instagram stories so you can help give me some ideas. I hope y’all have an amazing rest of your week!

With Love,

Pixie Rain