I overprepared again 😐

In the 2nd week of September 2024, I flew to Mumbai for my b1/b2 US visa interview. Good news is I got the visa. On this note, I am sharing how I overprepared for the interview. And how, I often at times, overprepare. 

The interviews were on 9th and 10th. I got good advices from Co-founders@Houseware and senior colleagues. And the visa agent too. My conclusion was to get as many documents supporting my case as possible. On 10th, the consular interview day, I had a big stack of dcouments with more than 35 pages. I was a bit early to the interview place. So, I had to wait outside, Entires were time sloted. So, I waited for my turn.

I went in, waited on another queue, and finally met the interviewer. He asked a few basic questions, like - Where are you going? Why are you going? What do you do? Who is paying for the trip? And said `Your visa is approved`. Didn't look at any documents. 

While heading back to hotel, I started thinking, the entire stack of documents, there weren't required. No one checked them. I felt like I overprepared for it. No, I hadn't done any interview preparations, as this was more of a factual interview, not a skill or presentation. But, I had done preparation to get these documents, get them printed. All for nothing?

One part of my brain started:

 Hey, you prepared for the worst, and your job is a success. Why does it matter if you overprepared. What if they had actually asked for some of those documents. By preparing for the worst you were ready to face the worst. You could pull out  any document they could have asked.

And the other half said

Yeah, this is legit. And I am not disappointed, and since you, have nudged myself to the final outcome, I am really happy that I got the job done. But, these kind of overpreparation has led me to missing out on opportunities earlier. Always going for perfection, preparing for the worst always, have let me down. Once, I was preparing for my Google Certified Web depeoper exams. Had a long planned preparation cycle. But, they stopped giving certifications before I felt ready.

First half again

Oh, I see you. Going for perfection, preparing for the worst shouldn't happen at the cost of never feeling ready. Prepare for the worst, go for the perfection but within your limited resources - 'time' especially. This often works like magic when you have to run faster but at the same time have space to re-try. 80-85% success, 15% failure is a sweet spot, tight your resources by opening your mind to 85% readiness. Plan like this. Then push extra for the 100%. 

Makes sense now. Overpreparation is just preparation, when done with an obsession for the goal. 

Let's hit more goals 🎯