PERFECT IS NOT THE GOAL

One of the most common reasons why people don’t feel good enough, and as a result suffer higher than necessary levels of anxiety is the idea that they need to strive for perfection.

I hear people every day tell me that they are “a bit of a perfectionist”, and whilst they are declaring it as a flaw, they are actually proud of that quality.

It’s like when you get asked at a job interview what you perceive your worst quality to be and you say “I work TOO hard”.

The desire to improve and learn and grow and constantly keep our eyes peeled to spot the opportunities of becoming a better version of ourself is a great and admirable quality to have.

Perfectionism is not.

If we can’t feel satisfied until we are perfect then we doom ourselves to a life of disappointment, because perfect is not possible.

The goal of perfection leaves us in a constant state of failure.
This destroys our self-esteem, damages confidence and leaves us never feeling good enough.

It’s traditionally high achievers that suffer with this outlook the most. They’re used to getting better grades, higher scores and better results than those around them, but still they don’t feel good enough.
Whilst they strive for perfection, they never will.

If we choose to spend less time focusing on the things we didn’t achieve and more time acknowledging the things we did, then not only will we go through life much happier but we will also have more confidence.
Funnily enough we tend to do our best work when we feel confident in our own abilities.
That means recognising our achievements helps us achieve more.

So it turns out...

...you don’t need to be perfect.

Just be you.

Just you is good enough.