Are you a perfectionist? If you are, can you relate to getting less done because you procrastinate rather than produce?
Do you ever question Why? If I can’t do it perfectly, why bother?
Do you make funny decisions and stop taking action because you think it has to be perfect!
Does it? Really?
Well, I can relate.
Truly, I can.
Iām very good at setting grand plans for what I want to achieve. I outline projects ā Iāve got stacks of them.
Theyāre all good ones too. But, like most people I have to work on my limitations, accept whatās holding me back. And, like most people I have to face my fears, self-saboteurs and limiting decisions. And, isnāt it easier to put it off what needs to be done than face your fear that it wonāt be perfect? And, around in the circle we go.
How can you make someday, this day?
Letās look at what happens in the procrastinationĀ orĀ perfectionist Ā cycle.
We know what we want to do ā we dream about what it will look like, how it will work, who it will help.
It all seems clear ā big maybe, but clear!
We all have different places we get stuck in the cycle, usually hung up on the pieces weāre less good at, the places we feel less confident and certain. Oh, the energy we spend in guilt and worry. If we could harness all the energy from all the women who worry and wait and feel guilty, we could probably power the planet.
How can we bring it back to the ālevel of oneā and power our own work?
Do any of these beliefs, thoughts or ideas ever plague you:
- Failure is unacceptable
- People will dislike me, ridicule me or exclude me if I donāt do it right
- Success is dangerous ā if I do something it might work, and then what? How will I keep up? How much more do I have to give?
- Iām afraid of what the future will bring
- No one will buy from me so why bother?
- Someone else has already done this better….
- Ā I just donāt want to do it and you canāt make me
Maybe at this point you have been putting doing some of the stuff that needs to be done.Ā Perhaps it was planning a trip or trying to take action on your business.Ā Or maybe it is just that you just don’t want to do it
You can stop the procrastination cycle!
One way to deal with this is to picture the worst case scenario. What are the worst things that could go wrong and what would the outcome of those things be?
Try this ā write down or speak aloud whatever comes to mind for you.
Donāt judge the answers. Keep answering until you run out of the easy answers.
You know, the answers like āIāll be happyā or āeverything will be differentā.
Eventually, youāre going to drill down deep enough to get to your truth and youāll realize youāre holding yourself back from your own good. Have you ever heard that definition of F.E.A.R: False Evidence Appearing Real? Thatās all it is!
Explore all the beliefs you are holding about the things you are afraid to do and keep asking yourself: What is the worst thing that can happen?
I have a friend who has a client who is terrified to make the phone calls she has decided to make to generate new business.
As a perfectionist, Ā she created a āterror chartā to put near her phone.
It relates to how she feels on the terror scale with 1 being watching a movie with her family to a 10, a bomb hitting her house.
She decided that a phone call is about a 2. It makes her laugh and allows her to get on with the task!
Shakespeare once said that ‘all the world is a stage and we are merely players on that stage’.
Each of us has a star quality within us to play our role in his world- letĀ your star come out!
Try the worst case scenario drill down ā it works brilliantly for me and for so many of clients and I believe it will work just as well for you.