Benefits of habit “Stop being a perfectionist”
✓ Reduces stress and anxiety
✓ Improves positive outlook
✓ Improves relationships with people
✓ Saves time for other activities
✓ Reduces waste of your energy
First step:
✓ Let go of 1 imperfect thing today
Progress:
1. Today, let go of 1 imperfect thing today. Let that vase stand the way it does now, it’s actually fine. Just let it slide and focus on other, more important things. Do this daily for 1 week.
2. Next week, let go of 2 imperfect things per day. Don’t give your shower cap extra attention and stop checking email after 6pm.
3. Keep increasing the amount of irrational perfections, until you are no longer bothered by them at all.
Helpful tips to make it a habit:
✓ Trigger your mind. Not every little thing can be planned and it’s best to accept it. Keep a stress ball to grip instead of that item you feel is out of place or chew some gum instead of telling someone off for doing things wrong. Set yourself a physical trigger so your mind can know to stop itself from perfectionism.
✓ Let the app help. Set a reminder for every morning so you could start your day with a message to let it go more often than you do. You may also mark the days in your calendar you couldn’t resist the impulse of fixing everything.
✓ Reward yourself. Once you’ve gone a full month of successfully stopping yourself from perfectionism, reward yourself by using all the extra time and energy you have to pick up a new activity instead of all the time you spend worrying about small insignificant things. Enjoy yourself!
Tips for beginners:
✓ Think of others. Some perfectionism is good, it’s probably what makes you a good manager and well-organized. However, too much of it can seriously negatively affect you and worse yet, it can affect people around you. Think of the stress, irritation or anger you can cause by focusing too much on details that don’t really matter. Think of how you would feel in those people’s shoes.
✓ Stop worrying. Stopping yourself from controlling and fixing everything does not mean you will become a slouch. It only means you will stop worrying about insignificant details that you can live without. So stop worrying about that.
✓ Compulsiveness. There ARE actual compulsive disorders that may make you more of a perfectionist than you would otherwise be. If you feel that your perfectionism exceeds certain boundaries and you find it incredibly hard to stop yourself from being that way, consult your doctor or a psychologist to know if it’s more serious or not.
