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How To Be Your Most Productive Self: Let Go Of Being Perfect
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Let go of the need to be perfect
- Start small: Get comfortable to let go of the need to be perfect from the beginning.
- Try an outside perspective: We're usually hard on ourselves, but not nearly as harsh with other people.
- Make a commitment to work on a project for a set period of time: Once the time is up, you're done, whether the project is perfect or not.
- Put all your perfectionistic tendencies towards areas that are truly important to you.
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“Done” is always better than “Perfect”
“Perfect” and “productive” aren’t the same thing; perfectionism is actually counterproductive.
Just because society is placing a higher value on perfection doesn’t mean you’re actually getting more done.
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3 types of perfectionism
- Self-oriented: when people are highly critical of themselves.
- Other-oriented: when people are highly critical of others.
- Socially-prescribed: when people think others expect them to be perfect and then pressure themselves to be perfect in order to meet those expectations.
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What causes perfectionism
- Competitive work environments: If you work in a culture that demands perfection, you’ll probably start demanding perfection.
- Pride and personality: Some persons have personalities that are naturally susceptible to perfectionism.
- Fear of failure: People identify with their failure. They will strive for perfection as self-preservation.
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Perfectionism and procrastination
People who are concerned about perfection often have a hard time getting started.
They’re stressed about doing things perfectly, they feel paralyzed to get started, and their work suffers. This can also stop them from trying new things, taking risks, and can suppress their ability to innovate.
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Do a weekly review to reflect on your progress
Try to identify things you avoided due to fear of failure and situations where your perfectionism wasn’t worth it or moments where you did well despite being uncertain.
You...
Get an outside perspective on your perfectionist tendencies
Talk honestly and openly to someone about your tendencies and how you’re working on getting better.
Ask them to tell you when you are being too fussy about something so you can think about it.
Interrupting the cycle of rumination
- Take note of when you’re ruminating and what triggers it until you can see your patterns and find ways to counteract them.
- Don't trust your first reaction when ruminating. Most of the time, it colors negatively your read of the situation.
- Seek a diversion to break the rumination cycle.
- Think positively: remembering your successes and times you tried new things helps you to not be avoidant of tasks you can’t do perfectly.
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Perfectionism: The Pursuit Of Constant Excellence
There is a common trait among many high-achievers: Perfectionism. Celebrated geniuses like Leonardo Da Vinci, Beethoven, Steve Jobs and even Kanye West share an obsessive ...
Perfectionism: The Good
The good aspects of being perfect are intrinsic motivation, extreme focus, ambitious goals, strong work ethic and high personal standards. They are also highly coachable.
Elite performers are often perfectionists as their activity requires error-free performance.
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Not Celebrating Your Success
It's never good enough, so you get sucked so far into the details that you become frustrated.
Even when your goal is complete and results in success, you believ...
Pursuing Perfection, But Never Feeling Perfect
Even if you have a clear goal of what perfection means, obsessively pursuing it is a sign of insecurity.
And insecurity, when not addressed directly, doesn’t go away because a concrete objective has been achieved, it manifests itself into self-criticism or a new overvalued goal.
Not Allowing Yourself To Fail
Instead of forgiving and viewing mistakes as a learning opportunity, you criticize and put pressure on yourself for not predicting a less than perfect outcome. You feel inadequate, and these feelings preoccupy your mind, often to the point of losing productivity.