Sometimes we need to remind ourselves: We need to focus on progress, not perfection. Perfectionism should never be the goal.
Why? Because when you live in a world where everything has to be perfect, you’ll find that you end up overly stressed and anxious. You’ll be frozen in place.
Focusing on progress instead of perfectionism allows your creativity to soar and your goals to be reached. In this spirit, here are five tips that will help you overcome that naggy perfectionism.
5 Tips to Say Farewell to Perfectionism Once and for All
1. Break your project down into smaller, more manageable tasks.
Breaking any project down into smaller tasks allows you to feel a sense of accomplishment as you tick those tasks off your to do list. This will not only visually and mentally remind you that you’re making progress toward your goal, but is way easier than trying hard to produce a perfect project from the get-go.
2. Tell yourself it’s okay to make mistakes.
Don’t beat yourself up if you find you made an error. Remember that mistakes allow us to grow—where would we be if we hadn’t learned what we’ve learned? We believe in “failing forward”: fail fast, learn, integrate the learnings, and keep moving ahead.
3. Try something you’ve always wanted to do for the heck of it.
Chances are, the first time you try anything, you won’t do it perfectly. But you still deserve to give yourself a pat on the back for trying! It takes courage to jump into something we have no experience doing, and it allows us to grow every single time we do it.
4. Celebrate every accomplishment you have, small or big.
Every time you notice and celebrate your accomplishments, it adds passion to reaching your goals, one step at a time. Did you sign your first client? Celebrate! Did you finish that project you’d had on your to-do list for months? Celebrate! Did you just hit a personal record for monthly income? Celebrate! We start every coaching container we hold with a celebration for exactly this reason—we rarely take the time to pat ourselves on the back.
5. Be aware of your perfectionism tendencies.
We all have them—those tendencies towards perfectionism that we may not even notice! Well, it’s time to stay aware and notice when these things come up for you, because when you recognize what triggers you, you can learn to release those triggers.
Start small; even driving to the gym and turning back home for a month builds the muscle to go, which supports you opening the door. Not sure how to make progress on items that are feeling overwhelming? Contact us, and we’ll help you break into the next small step!