Choose Progress: Breaking The Perfectionism Habit
Perfectionism shows up in a lot of ways.
It can be fear of failure, procrastination in disguise, or an excuse for missing a deadline with a humble-brag energy.
“Oh, I’m sooooo sorry I didn’t finish it on time; I’m such a perfectionist!” 🤷♀️
But perfectionism isn’t high standards and a healthy attention to detail.
Perfectionism it’s anxiety, self-criticism, and burnout rolled into one.
And if you want to build a business, it’s something you have to quit.
Perfectionism often arises as a coping mechanism for anxiety and insecurity, driven by the desire to meet parental or educational expectations and avoid failure.
You can’t expect to suddenly stop being a perfectionist, no more than you could expect to wake up one morning and stop smoking.
You might need to untangle some of what got you here in the first place, but at the very least, it’s a habit. One you’ll have to break.
Here are five proven techniques you can use to practice embracing imperfection and choosing progress:
Set Time Limits: Give yourself a strict deadline for creating a post. For example, allocate 30 minutes to draft, design, and finalize a post. This encourages quick decision-making and reduces overthinking. Force yourself to post it at the end of the countdown!
Daily Posting Challenge: Commit to posting daily for a week or a month. Notice I didn’t say, “Post the most incredible content you could ever IMAGINE every day for a week!” This is about learning to be consistent, breaking your perfectionism habit while building a posting one, and realizing that no single post is the make-or-break for your business.
Find an Accountability Partner: Team up with another artist or entrepreneur who is working on building an audience. You don’t even need to be in the same industries or countries! Share your goals and check in with each other to stay motivated. (Tag me in the comments, and I’d be happy to show up with my pom poms and cheer you on!)
Face The Fear: So you post the reel, and it sucks so hard that 100% of your followers leave. ALL OF THEM. This is very improbable—the more likely result is being ignored—but you owe it to yourself to identify what you’re scared of. Is it looking stupid? Losing followers? Getting no likes? Write it down, sit with it, and then ask yourself - are any of those things worth not chasing your dream?
Affirmation: When that inner critic starts whispering and self-doubt bubbles back up, repeat one of these affirmations three times:
"I choose progress over perfection."
"Creativity thrives in freedom, not perfection."
"I celebrate my efforts, not just the results."
"Mistakes are opportunities for learning."
Or write your own!
You’re not going to break this habit overnight.
But you can be a little bit less of a perfectionist today than you were yesterday.
You can make imperfection the bff you lock hands with and skip all the way down Progress Street 🤣
