Three More Tips to Help You Overcome Perfectionism

Here are three more tips you can use to help you overcome your perfectionism.

The first you can incorporate into your everyday routine, the second can become a regular habit, and the third can help you as you need it throughout your journey.

1. Concentrate on Yourself

It’s really hard to focus on making progress towards overcoming your perfectionism if you’re constantly trying to exert control over what other people do or hold them to your own high standards. This is a common problem with perfectionists of all sorts. After all, everything must be done right.

Instead, work on concentrating on yourself. Try not to worry about what other people are doing, much less how they’re doing it or what the outcomes are. This is the case even if you’ve delegated something to someone else; trust them to handle it appropriately and worry about yourself. This is even more true if you’re not supervising someone else -don’t worry about what they’re up to at all!

2. Try New Things

The drive to be perfect all the time can make it hard to try something new when you know you’re not going to be perfect at it from the start. The way to overcome this problem isn’t to avoid trying new things.

Quite the opposite; the best way to overcome it is to try new things more often. In fact, make it a habit; aim to try several new things a month. That will accustom your mind to being a beginner and help you get out of the habit of expecting perfection (or even excellence) the first time you do something.

3. Try Role-Playing

Role-playing is a great activity you can try to help you practice being less of a perfectionist. You should have a second person to help you with this, but you can do it on your own if you absolutely must.

Select a scenario that emphasizes one of the issues you’re currently working on -say, accepting constructive criticism -and role play out the scenario. Your friend can play the part of your boss giving you feedback, and you can practice accepting it without triggering a perfectionism spiral.

You can use this for any issues you have (and not just the ones around your perfectionism, either) and it’s a great way to practice new ways of handling things. You can practice failure, mistakes, delegation, realistic goal setting, and more using this method.