In a world where we’re measured on everything from our dress size to our credit score to our job title to our social followers, the pressure to be perfect can be overwhelming. And so, the temptation to do nothing can be powerful.
After all, if you don’t try, then you can’t fail.
But if you don’t try, you can’t succeed either.
How to embrace progression, not perfection
Find the source of the pressure: Firstly, it can help to analyse on why you’re so focussed on perfection. Is the pressure coming from within yourself? What’s driving it, and how could you be 10% kinder to yourself? Or is the pressure coming from elsewhere – a family member, colleague, or boss perhaps? How accurate is your understanding of their expectations? How would they respond if they knew how pressured you felt?
Set yourself a tiny goal: Teeny tiny. Yes, have a big overarching goal, but to make progress, you need tiny goals. Big goals set you up to fail. They’re too hard, take too long, they’re too high-profile, and if you don’t reach them, they’re also too demotivating. They take you way outside your comfort zone, beyond your stretch zone, and into your stress zone.
What’s the smallest action you could take to work towards your bigger goal? Celebrate your small wins, and set yourself another teeny tiny goal.
Learn to live with your "failures": We all have times when we fall short of our own expectations (however un/reasonable they may be). Rather than ruminating on them, and using them as a stick to beat yourself with, instead reflect on what you’ve learnt, and use this knowledge as a stepping stone to your next success.
Try to flip your perspective of failure – if you’ve never failed, perhaps you’ve not been brave enough yet. Learn to collect them like stamps on a loyalty card.
Find an accountability buddy: We’re more likely to achieve our goals if we know that we’ll be reporting our progress to someone else. So whether it’s a family member, line manager, friend or coach, consider getting someone in your corner.
Good enough is good enough: When you have high standards, it can be hard knowing when to draw a line and move on to the next thing. Ask yourself, is it good enough? How much impact would it really have if you gave it one more proof-read, re-formatted it once more, did just a bit more research, or crunched that data a slightly different way? Would it be worth the effort? Could that time be allocated more profitably elsewhere?
If it's good enough, it's good enough.
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