Let's Talk Perfectionism

I'll always be the first to admit that I'm a perfectionist. It's not like I wear this as a badge of honor (although I do appreciate it when it helps me do better on projects); it's just a fact about me.

I know plenty of others who would call themselves perfectionists, as well. There are many things that perfectionism connects to, from depression to anxiety to simple comparisons to others.

For me, I always second guess myself. Sometimes, it comes from my anxiety; other times, from my perfectionism. Even though I still struggle with this now, things have gotten better as I learned to tell myself that nothing is ever going to be perfect.

If you are unsure about whether you struggle with perfectionist qualities, here are a few things you might do if you do deal with perfectionism:

• you're either a total failure or a success
• you're hypercritical of your mistakes
• you have an insatiable drive that ends up with you burnt out

There are more signs of perfectionism, but it's too long of a list to include in this post. 

Much of the time, perfectionism and anything less than it being a failure will lead to procrastination. This is due to the fear of making mistakes and not wanting to work unless you know it'll be perfect. I can think of hundreds of times where I knew I should get started on something, but I would continue to tell myself that I was a failure because I hadn't started yet. But I couldn't start my work because I knew it wouldn't be great.

A quick disclaimer: I'm going to write about what I do to attempt to overcome my perfectionist traits, and, although this works for me, it may not work for you. If you want to, give it an attempt, and work towards giving yourself more leeway in whatever way works best for you. 

One thing that works best for me is to tell myself that starting later is better than starting never; after all, I won't be able to give a project my all if I don't even begin to work on it. In addition, I focus on what I know I'm good at instead of solely paying attention to what I struggle with. 

What do you do to deal with perfectionism?

xoxo,

Rachel