I’ve been struggling to get some of the creative stuff done lately within the business.

I think it’s because I’m stuck in a “doing” phase right now and not designing.  That’s ok.

I struggle to write these emails sometimes.

I originally started them because I just wanted to tell stories that had impacted me.

The responses I get on a weekly basis are humbling for sure.

So now I feel a sense of responsibility to keep them going.

Then fear steps in and side tracks everything.

Fear that the value won’t be there, Fear that people won’t like it, fear that I’m a fraud of some sort, fear of imperfection.

Then I came across a blog that Seth Godin writes and it reminded me of a lesson I preach to the staff constantly about.

“Just put the idea out there and we will find out”

In one of Seth’s blogs and the book “Linchpin” he coins the phrase “Just ship it”  (I think maybe this came from Steve Jobs originally)

He says:

“Ship often, ship lousy stuff, but ship. Ship constantly”

The point is that perfect isn’t real.  And nobody really cares if it’s perfect

Sometimes when I get criticism on grammar mistakes (which is valid) my only response is “But did you understand the message?”

What matters isn’t that the punctuation was correct or that the spelling was 100% accurate.  What matters is that I shipped it.

I didn’t know these emails would be so impactful to people.  I couldn’t possibly know that, nobody could.

Had I known that I’m not sure I would have started because of the fear that the expectations would grow.

When I started my YouTube channel I didn’t know what that would be either.   I published episode #135 last week.

That channel and this blog (which I email out and  is hosted on our website too if you didn’t know that) are riddled with mistakes.

LOTS OF MISTAKES!

And it doesn’t matter.  Nobody will remember any of that. They just remember that there was mostly good stuff there.

We let fear stop us from shipping because we are afraid that whatever it is might not be “viral” or “groundbreaking”.

This is the same lesson I push  to new coaches every weekend when they are afraid to start coaching or programming

“You are going to write a lot of bad workouts, and you will coach even more bad classes, so start now”.

I could let the fear of not having a great idea to impart to you stop me from writing, or I could just ship it and move on.

I realized that the totality of what we do is what matters, not any singular event.

Nobody talks about one hit wonders with any sort of reverence………

     Next time you hesitate to put your idea out, Ship It.

     Hesitant to start getting your nutrition in check, Ship it.

     Think you are gonna have a bad workout that day, Ship it.

     Worried the project will fail, Ship it.

When I look back at all the projects and all the ideas, the ONLY ones I regret are the ones that didn’t ship.

Thank you for allowing me to ship to you!

Fern