Are these Perfectionistic tendencies making your life harder than it needs to be?
Take The Quiz
✓ Are you your toughest critic?
Do you find you are judging yourself at a way higher standard than your friends, family or colleagues?
✓ Do you thrive on over achieving?
Your best often means going above and beyond and surpassing expectations. You learned young at that achievement gardeners praise, and you fear the loss of love or approval if you don’t deliver.
✓ Do you feel best after you have accomplished something?
You get a rush and a confidence high from getting a lot done and checking tasks off your list.
✓ Do you have trouble turning your brain off because you’re overthinking and multitasking the best way to accomplish something?
You have trouble getting to sleep at night because you are planning. Most of your down time is spent multitasking or planning.
✓ At the end of your day, do you look back and judge your productivity?
You assess how much you accomplished each day or your overall effectiveness.
✓ Do you beat yourself up thinking about all you “should” have done
You feel bad when you don’t meet your expectations about what you wanted to achieve
✓ Do you you get anxious before beginning a project?
You assess the importance of “getting it right” before you start a project, then play out worst possible case scenarios in your head before you begin taking action.
✓ Do you suffer from procrastination?
Does it take longer than it could to start or to finish a task or project because you are obsessing about the best way to accomplish the next task?
✓ Do you regularly replay past failures in your head?
Do you obsess about what you “should” have done in these scenarios in an effort to avoid the same mistakes or embarrassments?
✓ Do you guilt or shame yourself for not doing better?
You have a familiar voice in your head that guilts or shames you into doing things you don’t want to do.
If you answered, “Yes,” to 5 or more of these questions, you are suffering from perfectionism and making your life much harder and more stressful than it needs to be.
In other words, less than perfect.
While you think these tendencies may be helping you be better, do better, or avoid failure, they are not energy effective. Most of these scenarios are taking a greater amount of emotional energy than necessary, and causing a lack of ease in your life.
The Antidote for This Dis-Ease
When I was auditioning for my performing arts high school, my very wise dance teacher gave me some of the best advice of my life. When my mom, nervous about me getting in asked, “Is there anything Lara should practice to prepare?” My teacher looked me in the eye and replied, “Practice the steps you do really well; go over the ones you have mastered.”
At my tender age of 13, I thought that meant I didn’t have to practice anything, lol! Today I see her advice as pure brilliance and now understand what she was really tryingto teach me: self-confidence.
My technique was sound. She wanted to make sure my confidence was up, so my nerves wouldn’t inhibit my ability to perform under the pressure of an audition setting.
Most people do their best work when they feel good about themselves.
So when you find yourself obsessing over any of the perfectionistic thoughts in the quiz, see if you can stop and:
- Remember a time when you solved a similar problem.
- Ponder what has worked in the past.
- Think about a time when you really felt good about your mastery of something.
All you can ever do is your best. And it’s energizing and inspiring to recognize your best moments!
Watch the video below for an energy exercise to help you:
- Let go of the inefficient habit of perfectionism
- Get present to all you have to celebrate about yourself. Recognizing your mastery inspires your creativity and the flow of your mojo!
And, at the end of your day, instead of assessing all you accomplished, maybe ask yourself:
- What did I do today to support my confidence in myself?
- What did I do to support the excellent flow of my mojo?
Get the Worksheet Now!
Have these powerful Tapping Points and Mantras available on your phone, so you can use this exercise anywhere without having to find and watch the video.
Practice makes Perfection Peace 😉
Much Ease and Power,
