In all areas of life I try to look at the deeper meaning, or root cause, of our actions, health issues, beliefs...
In the case of perfectionism there are two causes in my view:
1. The compulsive need to complete something or do it perfectly - that irresistible urge for everything to align.
A great example here is if a goal feels too big or unattainable, or like it's going to take too long, many won't do it at all.
All or nothing.
Take a moment to think about how irrational this is.
Day-in-day-out I interact with people that won't start their gut healing journey because the timing isn't right.
That's okay, but where you can get caught up here is doing nothing instead.
I really want to highlight this... instead of fully committing, the alternative is doing nothing.
You might have heard the classic, cliché, saying: "Don't wait for the perfect moment, take the moment and make it perfect."
Even this is fundamentally flawed. The moment does not have to be perfect, you just have to be moving in the right direction consistently.
And from my experience, it's the days that don't feel perfect that you get the most done. Because the perfect days you've spent half your time planning and pondering to scratch that irresistible urge to make everything align.
2. The fear of judgement or other people's opinions.
It's not failure you're scared of, it's other peoples opinions of your failure.
I've met some of the most talented individuals who don't share their talent because of how it will be perceived by others.
Let me introduce you to a concept called "The Spotlight Effect"; which says that we as humans perceive the world like we're on a stage and the spotlight is on us.
We are all in the centre of our own world, and so, we all believe that the spotlight is on us, our actions, our flaws and our mistakes.
In reality, because we are all under this effect, it is only you that is ruminating over these actions, flaws, and mistakes.
This is not to say we don't care about the world around us and other people's actions. We just show a natural bias towards ourselves.
In short: no one actually cares that much, it's only you that suffers when you let this fear anchor you down.
...
A summary: Stop with the all or nothing mentality. Instead, become the type of person that aligns with your goals and results will follow. Slow down, it's not a race - everything you see in-front of you was built by taking one small step in-front of another for a long time. And finally, stop letting other people's opinions pull you back from doing what you want to do - it's as simple as that.
P.s. Apologies if this was a touch firm, I've fallen at the mercy of perfectionism many times - and still do - so my aim is to cut through the barriers and layers we pull up over ourselves.
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