The Beginners Guide to Overcoming Perfectionism

I often describe myself as a recovering perfectionist. Many times I have felt the need to make something absolutely perfect. It would cause me this intense feeling of torment by not being able to achieve this perfect vision I developed inside of my head.

I vividly remember as a child how I would re-write my homework over and over again, until I could complete the entire page without making a single eraser mark. (Imagine being a lefty with a pencil. Making it through a full page and no smudge marks was a daunting task). The feeling of needing everything to be perfect has often stop me from even getting started. As I grew older this would overwhelm me in ALL areas of my life. I found myself living on extreme ends of the spectrum where everything needed to be 100% perfect, or I would do nothing at all.

You may be thinking, what is wrong with making things perfect?

Don’t get my wrong, there is nothing wrong with making things perfect; but as humans we are NOT perfect so when mistakes happen (and they will) it can feel utterly devastating.

Fear of messing up

Fear has often been predominant when it came to new experiences, because I knew that it wouldn’t be perfect. Someone once asked me, did you do your best?

Wait a minute my best…

I never thought about this before. This simple question completely changed my life. Once overwhelmed and anxiety ridden. Carrying the shame of never feeling good enough. To feeling empowered by asking myself, is this my best?

Most of the time it really is my best.

Hope that things can get better

I realize in most circumstances outside factors often play a majority of the contributing role in the experience. These factors can impact the end result, a perfect example of this is running a few minutes late to work. The compounding effect of spilling your coffee as you are leaving the house, encountering a traffic jam, car accident, red light, unexpected flat tire, rainy weather, etc. Can induce stress that compound you into further difficulties.

Stop in these moments and ask, did I do my best? Then let go of the need for perfection. Take a deep breath in and feel into the fact that you did your best.

Remember, life is all about trial and error, when you grow up doing everything perfect. You leave very little room for the opportunity of growth. Your success teaches your mind that your already correct. Over time this constant success fools us into a false sense of overachieving. This can make any mistake later on in life feel absolutely devastating, and overwhelming.

We ALL will make mistakes…

Let that sink in, and mistakes are what helps us grow as humans. Without the mistakes we have no idea what needs to be done to improve. Growing up I didn’t make many mistakes. I can’t think of any major life lessons in my teenage years because I always wanted to do what was expected of me.

Your mindset can make all the difference

This is not to claim perfection, but because I wasn’t exposed to many opportunities for growth. It created a mindset of contentment. And it made it much harder to deal with a mishap when they did happen.

I have found the ultimate freedom in asking myself did I do my best?

If you are ever met with any problem, and you can honestly say that you did your best nothing bad can then happen to you.

If we continue to do our best, over time the things that are difficult will naturally become better.

I encourage you to take a look at your life. Are you doing your best?

When we see others being successful, it is their trial and error of successes and failures that got them there. Don’t fear mistakes along the way, each and every one is a learning opportunity for growth. Over the years I’ve thought of several business ideas, and always was too afraid to go after them because I never knew where to start.

I’ve witnessed others create what I thought of years ago (over and over again). I realize now that if I would have started implementing my ideas, I would be reaping the success from those mistakes made along the way. I encouraging you to let go of the need for perfection and just do whatever it is you have been wanting to begin.