How to Overcome Perfectionism and Achieve Your Goals
In the journey of personal growth and self-improvement, we often find ourselves entangled in the web of perfectionism. We strive for flawless execution, impeccable results, and unwavering motivation. What if I told you that there's a different path? What if I told you that you can overcome perfectionism AND achieve your goals?
There is! So what’s the catch? This path values consistency over perfection, self-love over fear, and gradual progress over instant success.
Consistency Over Perfection
In order to overcome perfectionism, we need to remember the power of consistency. Consistency is so much more valuable than perfection, because you won’t even be motivated all the time!
Setting yourself up for perfection is setting yourself up for failure.
Because in order to be perfect you need to be motivated all of the time, but in order to achieve consistency you only need to be motivated when to stay consistent.
Let me put it this way: If you put in at least 50% effort - literally HALF of your commitment - into pursuing your goal, you can achieve better results than if you tried aiming for 100% right out of the gate.
The key is to start, to take that first step, and to keep moving forward. It’s that simple! Just start. And when you stop, start again. Don't look at what anyone else is doing. Do it your way. I promise, doing it your way is the only way to achieve your goals.
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Embracing Imperfection and Self-Love
You must understand that progress takes time. You’re probably thinking, “Duh, Sandra, I know results don’t happen overnight.” But do you really understand and embrace that concept? Or are you pressuring yourself to achieve results just a little bit faster? It’s natural to do, but you must throw the concept of overnight success and accelerated results out the window. This thought does you no good, and most importantly, leaves no room for you to give yourself what you really need, which is grace and acceptance of yourself.
Overcoming perfectionism and achieving your goals is a journey. It takes time for you to figure out what works for you. It takes time to figure out what running shoes work for you, what foods work for you, what plan works for you.
Instead of pressuring yourself to achieve your idea of perfection from the start, embrace yourself exactly as you are.
Embrace the idea that this will feel challenging, and you will be imperfect. That's part of the process. Everything worth achieving will require self love and an acceptance of your own imperfections. So love yourself! Accept yourself for who you are, no matter how imperfect, and leave yourself room to figure things out as you go.
Becoming Fearless in Pursuit of Your Goals
Now let’s talk about fear. Fear often holds us back from pursuing our dreams and goals. These fears are often rooted in past preconceived notions of who we should be, how we should look, and how we should act. Fears may come from your childhood, your youth, experiences you’ve had with other people, past traumas… Fear could come from anywhere. To be fearless, of course, means shedding these fears and embracing daily actions that align with the person you want to become.
What does it look like to be fearless? It's dropping all negative self-talk that’s been drummed up in our head due to carrying past preconceived notions of who we should be, what we should look like, and how we should act. It’s consistent daily actions that acknowledge your fears, but push you to overcome them. It's about proving to your brain that you are a doer, not a quitter, regardless of what notions have been built up in your brain from fear. Overcoming fear is a key step in achieving your goals.
So how do you really overcome fear? You believe in yourself. Your belief in yourself will play a pivotal role in your journey.
Whether you say you can or you can’t, you will be right either way.
Choose to believe in yourself. Choose to show up for yourself. Choose to embrace difficult and fearful times because you know that you can overcome them. Your journey doesn’t have to be perfect - it has to just be.
Gradual Progress Over Instant Success
Remember that even “overnight successes” didn’t happen overnight. You have to hit 999,999 followers before you can hit 1M followers. You have to run 1 mile before you can run a marathon. You have to learn that 1+1=2 before you can do calculus.
Significant accomplishments are the result of gradual progress.
Instant success is not the rule, it is the rare exception. Even if it feels like your progress is taking forever, you can’t quit on yourself! Don’t compare yourself to others who seem to be achieving their goals “faster” or “better”. They’re not! They’re achieving their goals at their own pace, and so are you. Focus on your unique journey to achieving your goals.
What Consistency Has Done For Me
It took me 5 years to get to this place where I can dance on top of a parkade in a shiny matching outfit and not worry if someone from the next building over is laughing at me through their window. (Yes, I actually did this recently!)
My journey may seem really long to you, but I’m here to tell you, it's worth every step. I’m here to tell you that if you choose to embrace imperfection, love yourself, and be fearless today, that in five years, you'll be unrecognizable in the best possible way.
