When Perfectionism Looks Like Analysis Paralysis: Is The Perfect Answer Really Hiding In the Numbers

I’m learning to have the courage to say I have enough information to move forward.

It sounds simple. It’s not, at least not for me.

I can geek out on analytics related to my business (an artifact of tracking diabetes-related data since I was 10). Weekly data reviews, tracking what resonates and what doesn’t, information on what to do more of (and less). There’s real value in that—it keeps me strategic and helps me see what actually matters rather than guessing.

But I’ve noticed something. The data has also become a means of staying safe.

Another layer of analysis before I trust myself and my instincts. Because if I just keep looking, maybe I’ll find the perfect answer hiding in the numbers or a better way to do what I am doing.

The perfectionist in me loves this. The leader in me knows better.

Real leadership isn’t about having perfect information. It’s about having enough to move forward. It’s about trusting yourself to course-correct as you go, rather than waiting for certainty that may or may not come.

So this week, I’m practicing something small: deciding with what I know.

This was originally posted on my Substack


If you enjoyed this post, you may also like these:

  • The Year I Needed A Navigator

    Six months into asking how can this be easy, I found out where that question actually comes from In December, I wrote about the phrase I was taking into 2026: How can this be easy? I borrowed it from my business coach Krista Smith, and I loved it immediately. Not because I was…

  • Prepared in the wrong ways

    Freshman year, 1985. San Marcos High School newspaper. That’s me in the polka dots, interviewing President Reagan’s press secretary, Larry Speakes. I was terrified. It was the nicest outfit I could pull together at the moment, and maybe it matched exactly how unprepared I felt. Fourteen years old, holding a…

  • What Are You Actually Afraid Of?

    I’ve been thinking about fear a lot lately. My own, mostly. The kind that shows up when you’re doing something new — stepping into work that feels bigger, or different, or more visible than what you’ve done before. The kind that keeps asking: what if this doesn’t work? And I’ve been…