None of us are perfect – least of all me and this was reinforced very recently for me!
Only last week, I spent ages writing out an offer, painstakingly crafting the email automation, tweaked and changed several times, finally pressed the button only to spot that when the email came to me, there was an error in the subject line, it did not match the date in the body of the email – face palm!!
This had happened because I kept re-visiting it, tweaking, re-wording and then at the last minute changed my mind how long I would offer this for. I wanted it to be perfect, I wanted it to be right and yet it was too late it had already been sent and everyone had read it!
A long time ago this would have bothered me immensely. I would have lost sleep over it worrying what an earth will people think of me, messing up like that. I would have berated myself calling myself names like “stupid” I would have ruminated over it for days unable to accept I had made a mistake.
That’s not to say I had no reaction to this error. I still had a heart in mouth moment, but then, very slowly the realisation dawned that it’s ok. I brought perspective into the situation and realised that everyone makes mistakes at times. Even famous authors still have the odd spelling mistake in their books, others in business have sent me emails with the wrong name in.
Why am I sharing this with you? I just want you to know that all we can EVER do is do our best and that is enough. We are human and we all make mistakes sometimes no matter what. Here’s are a few tips to help you beat perfectionism
- Distinguish between what is realistic and what is not. Make sure goals you set are realistic, too often we set ourselves up for failure by not setting realistic goals
- Set a time limit. When completing tasks, give yourself a limited time to work on it and set a timer that way you won’t be so tempted to keep picking at it
- Get comfortable with failing. Expose yourself to failure by doing things out of your comfort zone
- Procrastination is a symptom of perfectionism. Beat this by just taking the first step and commit a time and day to do this, then the next step and so on
- Remember done is better than perfect!
So I want for you to be kind to yourself embrace your imperfections. Who wants a friend/partner/client/mentor that is perfect anyway!
I am off to hit send on this “imperfect” article before I change my mind