How to Overcome the Perfectionism Trap: Purpose Over Perfection
Every so often I meet someone who is extremely gifted or has a great idea for a new content creation project or business but they talk themselves out of moving forward or keep postponing the execution of their plans because they want to wait for the perfect moment. I get it. We are all taught from a very early age that if we are to achieve results we need to be perfect, especially women, we are often told that they only way we can achieve anything in life is to be perfect at it. There is a perfectionism trap that many of us are caught in, it's the idea that unless we get everything right we cannot get started. The perfectionism trap will have us believing that we are not allowed to make mistakes or that failing makes us a failure when in fact mistakes and failure are all part of our journeys of self-discovery. Remember to focus on your intention and on your purpose over perfection. If I had waited for the perfect conditions I would never have started my business for example. If I had wait for the perfect tools and been caught up on everything being perfect I would never have started my youtube videos, my videos may not be perfect but they serve a purpose.
Here are some tips on overcoming perfectionism:Be honest - I was honest by sharing my experience with you and I was honest within my video, that honesty enables us to overcome our need to constantly be perfect.Face the fears - Perfectionism often is a sign that we are afraid to fail or we don't want to face the idea and reality of failure, we use waiting for perfection to stop us from moving forward. We will make mistakes but those mistakes don't define us. Failing does not make you a failure, in fact it offers us a chance to learn and to grow.Show ourselves compassion - Speaking from my own experience I have used perfectionism as a reason to undermine my own success. If things were not perfect then it meant I did not deserve to enjoy success, I allowed myself to be a self-critic or internalise external criticism in a way that limited the way I navigated certain spaces. I will continue to show myself compassion and hope that you will to as you let go of perfectionism. I really enjoyed filming this video and even though it is not perfect I hope you will enjoy it too.
Plan, prepare and get started rather than wait for everything to be perfect. Perfection can be a real dream killer, if we wait for everything in life to be perfect before we live the life we're destined to live we'll never get to where we're meant to go! Do the work to release yourself from the perfectionism trap - you do not have to be perfect to get started, just start.