Your Perfectionism Habit — How to Free Yourself from Its Clutches

Give yourself credit
Your perfectionism habit keeps you stuck.

Your perfectionism habit is holding you back.

It may feel like you just have lofty goals, but in reality, you are stuck.

Heart-Based Time Management™ strategies help you free yourself from beliefs and habits that stifle your success, no matter what your goals may be. And a good example is your perfectionism habit.

You see, the more of your time and energy you devote to pursuing perfection, the bigger, more demanding, and more discouraging it becomes. 

That’s because perfection is, by definition, an unattainable goal.  It’s a moving target that you can spend a lifetime pursuing and never, ever reach.

It ties you in knots. Ready to start untying them? 

3 Strategies to Overcome Your Perfectionism Habit:

The first fact to assimilate is that your perfectionism habit is not a character trait.  Perfectionists aren’t born; they are made. Seeing perfectionism for what it is — nothing more than a learned behavior — means that you can unlearn it. And when you commit to understanding and overcoming perfectionism, you’ll also start learning first-hand how much more pleasurable and productive your life can be.

So, let’s get started…

1. Unmask Your Perfectionist: 

The first step is to get to know what your Perfectionist Voice sounds like.  The debilitating messages you give yourself are often so familiar and so embedded in your psyche that you hardly notice them.  That’s a big part of the reason they remain powerful. So, pay particular attention to perfectionist messages that you give yourself, for example, “This isn’t nearly comprehensive enough.  You need to add more data,” and start writing them down. 

You’ll immediately start to notice and identify the expectations that aren’t realistic. Don’t try to argue with your inner perfectionist or defend yourself – this is not a rational part of you.  Simply envision yourself placing each perfectionistic message into a sack, and then adding the contents of the sack to a bonfire.  Then replace each of those perfectionistic messages with a realistic goal.

2. Find the Root of Your Perfectionism Habit

Identify the sources of this voice in your life. This may be obvious to you, or it might take some time and persistence to trace these messages to their roots. A good way to start is to sit back, relax, and close your eyes. Tune in to the voice of your perfectionist as if you were tuning in to a radio station from long ago.

Whose voices do you hear? Did particular members of your family urge you to perform?  Were there teachers who made unrealistic demands?  Did you have a role model whose standards were way beyond your reach? 

Let yourself explore the sounds and scenes of your past. You’re sure to find clues that will help you unlock the prison of perfectionism.

3. Name the Fear that Fuels

Perfectionism isn’t really about attaining something. It’s actually about fleeing from something. For each of us the particulars are different, but what’s universal is the driving force of fear at the core of all perfectionism.  So every time you identify and name the source of your fear, you take back your power. 

Do you fear failure?  Do you fear others’ opinions of you?  Perhaps even others who are long gone from your life?  Or do you fear what will happen if you succeed? Whatever your particular personal fears may be, it’s important to know that it’s an illusion to think that perfectionism can “fix it.”

Realism is key.

At the end of the day, we each have the power to replace perfectionism with realism. We each have the power to validate that our best is good enough. Part of what that means is that we each need to make our peace with those things that lie beyond our ability to fix.

And interestingly, when you allow yourself room to learn and grow, rather than requiring perfection, you feel empowered and experience the world as a safer place. Indeed, living more realistically makes your time at once more enjoyable and more productive.

So how will you start, today, to replace your perfectionism habit with productivity?

Here’s more help…

Perfectionism eats up the energy and undermines the confidence of countless bright, energetic, and talented people.

 “Why Perfectionists Aren’t Perfect: How to Overcome the Pitfalls of Perfectionism and Change Your Life for Good” puts proven, practical, heart-based time success tools into your hands. With this E-Guide, you engage in a process of learning that is deepening and doable, and definitely within your reach. And this E-Guide comes with two powerful bonuses:

  • “Perfectionism and Procrastination: Untangling the Knots” is an immediately downloadable Special Report that sells separately for $9.95 — and is my gift to you.
  • And in addition to this Special Report, we’ve added a 5-week e-course. You’ll receive weekly, bite-sized servings of “Why Perfectionists Aren’t Perfect” right to your inbox.

So, are you tired of feeling like your own worst enemy? And are you ready to step away from perfectionism and free up the time and energy it’s been devouring? Then click the link below to learn more about this transformative time tool and the bonuses that come with it! https://thetimefinder.com/PerfectionismGuide.html

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