The gym I go to puts up a lot of motivational posters. They are helpful reminders, especially during that mid-workout moment when calling it quits a little early today is very tempting. This week a new poster went up that reads, “I am not the strongest. I am not the biggest. I am not the fastest… But I am consistent, persistent & resilient and I will never give up.”

And of course, I saw that and thought, “That’s just like building a website.”

[Tweet “Business owners want their website to be absolutely perfect. It’s not going to happen.”]

Now, you might think the two practices have nothing in common, but they do. The majority of business owners want their website to be absolutely perfect, with everything they’re ever going to need or want in place the moment they launch. This is just like the would-be bodybuilder who goes into the gym for the very first time certain that they’re going to be able to lift a thousand pounds – it’s not possible, and it’s not going to happen.

The progress athletes make depends directly on the time, energy, and effort they can put into their workouts. They may not start out particularly fit, but through a consistent process of steady improvement, they move toward their goals. It’s not an all at once process. It happens a little at a time, day after day after day.

Websites work the same way. As a business owner, you have many demands on your time, energy, and effort. You also have a budget to work with. All of these constraints impact the initial build of your website. It may not be possible to have every feature and function you’d like to. It is not possible to have everything you’re ever going to need to serve your customers – new technologies are being developed every day and the must-have feature you’ll want a year from now may not actually exist today.

We start where we are. Think of your building your website the same way an athlete trains. It’s not an all or nothing game; nothing has to happen all at once. Launching a website in phases, with meaningful improvements and upgrades in each iteration, makes sense for most businesses. It’s how the world’s biggest brands do it. Continual improvement gives your customers a consistently fresh experience while moving you closer to your business goals. At the same time, this approach gives you the benefit of seeing how new and emerging technologies actually work before you commit to using them yourself.

You don’t have to be the strongest, biggest or fastest. But you do need to be consistent, persistent and resilient. That’s how bodies – and businesses – get built!