It’s okay to be a perfectionist

You can still get work done

Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash

I always thought that my need for perfection was my super power. Don’t get me wrong, the finished work often does end up being impeccable. That is, if the work is actually finished.

The biggest problem with perfectionism is that it masquerades as a good skill to have when actually, it’s quite the opposite. The need to produce work perfectly simply impedes your ability to deliver.

Yes, it’s important to put your heart into your work. And yes, it’s important to make sure that the work is of value. And yes, it’s important that work is error-free and good.

But, getting caught up in perfection simply means work slows down.

I envy people who don’t overthink and who can just put out work without much consideration. Because guess what, it’s not so bad. Sure, there are people who will do or say anything, and the quality is awful. But, for many it’s not.

I know the mantra “progress over perfection” and as much as I’ve tried to embed it into my own thought process, I keep reverting to my old ways of trying to achieve perfection.

The problem with that is no degree of perfection is enough for people who are as critical as I am. Whether we like it or not, we will overthink. And no matter what we produce, there will never be complete satisfaction.

Truth be told, I haven’t completely found a way around it. I can’t claim that the mantra worked or anything works for too long. When something’s part of you nature, it’s very hard to remove it completely or change yourself. And for the most part, stuff like this isn’t exactly something you need to seek help for unless it’s really debilitating.

The only thing that I’ve ever works is trying to keep the motivation going. Keeping the end goal in mind can help with that.

Telling yourself that you don’t have to be perfect does not help. It’s never good to put yourself down, if you’re trying to build motivation to actually get work done.

Instead, you have to keep reminding yourself why you’re doing the work in the first place and what you want to achieve. That motivation should propel you to not just do the work faster but, also do it as well as you possibly can in the time that you have.

Mantras don’t work. What works is visualizing your sense of accomplishment and what you would feel once things are complete.

And even then, allow yourself room to fail at it. It’s a process and it takes time. Nobody ever gets over it completely but, you do tend to get better at it with time.

It’s okay to be a perfectionist. Trust me, you can still get work done.