Perfectionism

I used to struggle with this - working and working and working on things for hours on end, ensuring that I had every single little piece of information in the correct place, neatly laid out and just right. I found that I was always "up against it" despite receiving great results once the work had been submitted and in my head, I was telling myself how things could have been different or better. I always wanted things to be so correct that it go to the point where I knew I had to do something about it.

I slowly began working on it all, and came up with what saved me from hours of agony, and at the same time, gave me so much more free time it was pretty cool. I therefore thought that I would share them with you to share with people who you know could benefit from following these simple steps if they choose to!

1. Acknowledge where you already are

In striving for perfection in everything that you do, acknowledge that you are already in the top percentage of the world who set out to do things. Your basic planning on a small event would be the same as everyone else planning and strategizing for months on end. Be aware of what you already do and know that it is more than what most people set out to do.

2. Prioritise

Establish what your priorities are and get clear about what they are to you. Making lists helps to see what needs to be done first, but will also help you to see that there are not enough hours in the day to do the things you may think you can. There is that quote that goes something like "we often over-estimate what we can do in a day but totally under-estimate what we can do in a life time"

3. Be Realistic

Set yourself realistic expectations as to what you want to achieve. Know that there are many other obligations that you currently have in your life such as spending time with family and friends, basic health requirements and most importantly, rest and relaxation. If you have a large project in mind, break it down into bite sized chunks, and this can also be covered under prioritizing things as well.

4. Learn

What better way to learn than to allow yourself to make mistakes. If we never make mistakes, how the hell are we ever going to learn because as you know, mistakes are nothing more than lessons and learnings. The only way to get anything "perfect" is to make the mistakes that we need to make - once you have done them once, you know not to do them again in the future. This for me was possibly one of the most challenging things I needed to get through to my head as a perfectionist, but once I realised how important it was, things became a lot easier to work on and handle.

5. Celebrate

Every single time you complete a task without spending ages double and triple checking it. Every single time you successfully complete a project on time and hand it over without questioning yourself. But most importantly, every single time you make mistakes and create new learnings for yourself.

6. Allow room for growth

Realise that in our striving for perfection in all that we do, how will we ever improve when we achieve that perceived perfection? Instead, focus on how tomorrow can be better than the amazing day we had today, regardless of what happened.

7. Nobody expects you to be perfect except yourself

Recognize that no one ever expects you to be perfect all of the time, and most of the time whilst we waste time striving for that, people are already extremely happy with us the way that we are. Another significant point to remember is that no matter what we do, other people's perception of us will always be changing. And finally, there is no way that we will ever be able to please everyone, so we do what we do to the best of our ability, allowing room for growth and learning, and that is that!

8. Plan ahead

Schedule time to correct "learnings" before you hit your deadlines. What can be done, can be un-done or re-done, given enough time.

9. Value your work

Value quality of work on time vs. perfect work late. Sometimes our mediocre work is really much better than we think it is, only because we know what we can do, given the extra time. Stick to your time limits and look at what you did do as good and don't get caught up thinking about what you could have done.

10. Ask for help

Learn to ask for help from those around you - there is nothing wrong with reaching out to other people and this, in fact, is a strength and trait that many people are too afraid to own. Until recently, I always thought that I had to do everything on my own (yup, pretty crazy I know) but I learnt that it takes a team to make a dream and that is what I had to do.