Do you have a perfectionist always looking over your shoulder? I’m not talking about your boss or a coworker. I’m talking about the inner perfectionist! The one that is always telling you that you’re not good enough, that your work needs one more tweak and then, when you do that “one last tweak” it demands yet another.

  • “It’s not good enough yet. It’s not perfect. I need it to be perfect.”

This inner perfectionist is part of your personality. Not everyone has a highly developed one. There are plenty of people out there who can say, “Good enough,” without being plagued by an inner voice that says, “Not so!”

If you, however, have that inner perfectionist riding you, here are some things to consider.

  • 1. Is your inner perfectionist keeping you from accomplishing something important?
  • 2. Would the project you’re working on have been done quite awhile ago if it weren’t for all the tweaks it “needed” to be perfect?
  • 3. Is your inner perfectionist making you miserable?

If you answered yes to any one of the questions above, you aren’t in the driver’s seat. You’re being run around by your subconscious programming.

Do you want to get back in the driver’s seat? Do you want to be the one determining how and where your life is going to go? Then you’ve got to have a heart-to-heart talk with “the perfectionist”.

What do I mean heart-to-heart talk? Isn’t talking to yourself, crazy? No, it’s not. It’s actually how you keep sane. You’ve got to recognize that your subconscious programming has taken on the form of a perfectionist and is derailing your progress by a misguided belief that it is helping you be the best you can be.

I’m not saying there is anything wrong with being the best you can be! No, what I’m saying is the inner perfectionist has a view of perfection that is not humanly possible. It will ride you until you feel like you’re going nuts. If you feel you’ve reached that point, then it’s time to throw up your hands and say, “Enough!”

I’ll bet the project you’ve been working on is better than good enough. I’d even bet it was better than good enough, a few weeks ago. You have to tell your inner perfectionist, “I’m happy with this the way it is now. If you want to tweak it in the future, fine… But, for now, it is better than good enough and I’m going to put it out into the world.”

This little “heart-to-heart” will put you back in the driver’s seat. Now you just have to deal with your fear of failure or your fear of success.

Good luck,

- Gwen Baran

P. S. Contact us if you want some help with moving beyond the blocks your perfectionist puts in your path.