Are you a victim of perfectionism? I know that I used to be (okay, in fairness I still battle with it, but most recovering perfectionists do).
Perfectionism has been portrayed in society for years as a good thing, when in reality it often holds people back and it can breed burnout. Constantly striving for perfection is exhausting and stressful and it typically doesn’t result in healthy lifestyles for most people, and yet so many people still chase perfectionism all day long.
Today I want to share my 4 tips for ditching the perfectionism mentality and getting back to your life but I also wanted these tips to be realistic. When I was first looking to improve some of my perfectionism tendencies to the curb I felt like a lot of tips sounded easy, but where actually quite difficult for a perfectionist to implement. I’m hoping that my tips are ones that you can implement to help avoid those perfectionism tendencies instead of just reading another list of things that you should be doing differently.
Set Deadlines and Stick to Them
This one is simple but so hard for perfectionists. When you are completing projects you need to set deadlines and you need to stick to them. One of the hardest things for perfectionists is that they work on all these projects and they never actually finish anything or put anything out into the world because they insist that they are still tweaking it, they are still trying to make it perfect.
By setting and sharing your deadlines publicly you can help keep yourself accountable to what you set out to do with the help of those people closest to you. Find an accountability partner that will hold you to those deadlines you set and make sure that they are very clear on what those deadlines are. This is going to feel uncomfortable at first and you are still going to feel like your project isn’t quite ready, but it will force you to put it out into the world even though you feel like it may not be there yet. And over time this will get easier for you, even though the first few times you do it, it won’t be comfortable.
Focus on Impact Not Perfection
Focusing on the impact your project is going to have is key to getting those projects out. I feel like this is something that perfectionists miss. They are so focused and making the project absolutely perfect that they completely neglect the fact that for someone out there that project could change their lives in some way. We forget that these projects are meant to help someone else out in the first place (it’s why we’re creating them) and although we may not view it as perfect or complete it could still positively impact someone’s life.
So the next time you find yourself “tweaking” something over and over, try reminding yourself instead why you created that project in the first place, because even though it’s not perfect in your eyes, I bet it will still help someone out!
Emphasize Learning Opportunities Not Failures
One of the biggest reasons I believe that perfectionists avoid putting things out into the world is because they are afraid of failure (don’t worry, my hand is in the air here too).
I believe that it’s important to look at these experiences as learning opportunities and not as failures. After all, you haven’t actually failed, you’ve just found a way that something didn’t work. This can be a hard and a scary mindset shift to make, but if you can make it you will be able to push yourself outside of your comfort zone, and create some really incredible things as you learn all the ways not to do something.
Celebrate Your Successes
Finally, we need to celebrate our successes. I think that perfectionists are really good at when they finally do put something out into the world, they immediately move on to the next thing instead of taking some time to celebrate what they just achieved.
When you set your goals and deadlines for projects try noting how you are going to celebrate completing that project as well. And then actually go through with the celebration when it’s done.
Which of these 4 tips are you going to implement first? Although perfectionism is typically made out to be a good thing, take some time and consider what this mentality is doing for you.
ashleepedlowcoaching.ca 