100 Days: Lessons in Commitment and Imperfection

You’ve made the commitment. You’re motivated and energized. One activity, every day, for 100 days. You confidently complete the first week and declare “I’ve got this!” And then, life happens, and your perfect record is shattered. What do you do?

At Flywheel, our teams set out on an exercise in commitment back in January: 100 days in a row of the activity of your choice. A mile run, a meditation sat, a chapter read. Our teams set out confidently in pursuit of our goals, joyfully declaring daily our progress. But as it happens, life got in the way, and one by one, we missed our commitments. We had a choice: Quit the challenge? Or continue on with an imperfect record? As it turns out, staying committed in the midst of little failures and setbacks is harder than staying committed with a perfect record.

Commitment seems to have no greater enemy than imperfection, especially for those of us who love a beautiful final product, unmarked by mistakes or flaws. But there is an opportunity to use those missed days and setbacks to create an even better result. This talk is about the mindset of commitment, and how to let imperfection in, once and for all, in order to create something incredible.

Karen Borchert helps growing companies accomplish incredible work with amazing teams. Currently, Karen is the Chief Operations Officer at Flywheel, a fast-growing software company with operations and teams across the globe. Previously, she launched a data analysis product to help elections run more smoothly at Election Systems & Software. Karen’s background is in building non profits and early-stage companies, focusing on product development, technology strategy, and innovation. She sits on the board of Omaha Network, the Omaha Public Schools Technology Council, and the Union for Contemporary Art. Karen lives here in Omaha with her husband Taylor and three children. In her spare time, Karen is an avid runner, a farmers market junkie, and the host of a lot of impromptu dinner parties.