For most of my career, I’ve been a researcher. I was actually a researcher way before I took my first job - growing up with a Dad who was a legend in the market research world, I was doing surveys for class projects in primary school. Seeing the world through the lens of data patterns and observing behaviours comes so naturally to me I’m not even aware of it.
This ingrained research based approach has definitely spilled over into all aspects of my life, so it’s safe to say I approach most tasks (work and otherwise) in an analytical way, and with an element of perfectionism. One of the challenges I’ve found with this both in my career and my personal life is the tendency to want to optimise things - that is to ensure I have 100% of the information in place before I move forward. To my way of thinking, that was always the correct approach - gather all the information, fully weigh the data, predict all possible outcomes, make a fully informed decision, move forward with insight and confidence. From buying a house to booking a holiday, I had the blueprint! Maximum information = optimising outcome.
In a business sense, this was great while I was working in a pure research role, however as my career took me into the fast-paced, scrappy world of media sales and brand strategy, my tried and tested formula fell flat. Why? Because the real world doesn’t always work that way. There’s not enough time to muse all possible scenarios. Sometimes keeping a project moving is just as important. I remember one respected boss pulling me aside to gently suggest that this tendency was impacting the momentum of key projects. I was mortified….I was a perfectionist in every sense of the word and I didn’t realise that this was a potential blind spot for me. But his message was a gift, and I’ll never forget it. We don’t always have time to collect all the data. If we hold off until we do, until that 99% certainty becomes 100%, we risk losing momentum. In other words - I needed to stop being a handbrake.
I think for those of us with more analytical minds, it can feel safer to wait for all the information, all the feedback to get us to that 100% certainty. The critical lesson I’ve learnt over the years is that as long as you’ve approached things methodically and carefully - it’s ok to let yourself confidently move forward with momentum, rather than get stuck in optimisation inertia. Our approach at Noosa Vibe House reflects this - we work at a fast pace and we deliver amazing results. And I trust that my analytical, fact checking brain won’t let me down - but won’t slow me down either.
