Would you consider yourself a perfectionist?

Do you try to avoid showing any flaws or accepting faults within yourself?

Many of us fit into this category, especially in the age of social media.  The majority of what is posted to social media pages are the highlights, the good moments, the celebrations and successes that occur in our lives.  We are left to compare each other’s highlight reels, embarking on an impossible quest for perfection, and then feeling like failures when we inevitably experience setbacks or challenges in our lives.  This is never more apparent than when we are making healthy lifestyle changes.

Comparison derails our progress before we even get started.

We see the people who are posting gym selfies and eating the gorgeous salads for meals, but how often do you see the extra brownie(s) snuck in for an afternoon snack, or the lazy couch days spent binging Netflix?   Comparison of highlight reels feeds our perfectionistic tendencies, causes unnecessary stress, and holds us back from making progress toward our ultimate goals.

So, what can we do to avoid being sucked into the vortex of perfectionism?

As a recovering perfectionist myself, one of my favorite guiding aphorisms (defined as, a pithy observation that contains a general truth) comes from the work of Voltaire, “The best is the enemy of the good.”

I was first introduced to this aphorism in the 2009 book, The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  One of her resolutions for her Happiness Project is, “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”  In laymen’s terms, this aphorism suggests that we should learn to accept the good instead of striving for perfection.  Many things in life are worth doing, even if done mediocrely.

While trying to make sure everything is done perfectly might seem like the most efficient way to go about achieving a goal, this train of thought often holds us back from making steady progress, or any progress at all for that matter.

We get so hung up on making sure everything is perfect, that we end up stalled from making any forward movement.  Waiting for the right time and all the right pieces to fall into place, leaves us stagnant with inaction.

In order to take massive action toward successfully achieving your goals, I encourage you to think about making progress rather than making perfect.

How many times have you given up on your new diet plan because you ate something that wasn’t “allowed”?  Your progress was completely derailed because of the notion that you had to be perfect in order to achieve success.  While staying 100% on plan may help you get to your weight goal sooner, eating one brownie instead of three for dessert is still progress in the right direction toward your lifestyle change.

How many times have you skipped going on a walk because it couldn’t be at least 30 minutes? Sure 30 minutes of activity might be “better” in some regard, but a short walk of 5-10 minutes is still good for benefiting your health in many ways.

How many times have you said to yourself, “I can’t do this,” when you experience a setback on your journey toward goal success?  Perfectionistic tendencies and comparison to others lead us to question our ability to make successful lifestyle changes when we come across a bump in the road.

The good news is that we don’t have to except this as the truth.  When we don’t let perfect be the enemy of good, we can make significant progress toward successful achievement of our goals.

Now, you are probably asking yourself, “How can I make the mental shift from focusing on perfect to accepting the good?”

I’m glad you asked!  I’m going to share with you three easy steps to assist you in making this shift.

Shifting away from Perfectionism

Show Up

Once you have identified your goals and established your action plan, the next step is to show up for yourself.  Stand firm in your commitment to the process of making a lifestyle change by consistently sticking with your action plan.

Let’s say for example, you want to start exercising more to get in better shape.  Your action plan might be to exercise 30 minutes daily.  Show up for yourself by moving your body every day.

Start Small

Change is hard.  Creating new habits and new routines is challenging.  Starting with small tweaks can help you stay more consistent in showing up for yourself.  If your goal is to exercise 30 minutes every day, but right now you consider yourself more of a couch potato, it might be overwhelming to commit to 30 minutes every single day for exercise.  Start with a mini goal of moving your body for 10 minutes every day.  This is an example of the “good” version of your ultimate goal.

Any movement is better than no movement.  Yes, it would be great to successfully reach 30 minutes of activity every day since that is your ultimate goal.  However, accepting that 10 minutes of daily activity is good, because it allows you to make progress toward your goal of getting in better shape, is going to help you build consistency and confidence in your ability to stick with a regular exercise plan.

Slowly work your way up to 30 minutes daily.  Once you feel comfortable and established in this routine, challenge yourself to make another small tweak that will allow you to continue moving forward.

See Progress

Celebrating your progress is just as important at achieving your goal.  Make note of how far you have come and acknowledge that you are improving.  Tracking your action can be a great way to look back on your progress over time.   It’s easy to forget what we are doing from one day to the next.  Not to mention, over the course of a few weeks.  When you have a tangible record of your small action accomplishments, you can easily see your progress over the course of time.

Going back to our exercise example, you can see your progress over time when you are tracking how many minutes of walking you’re doing each day.  Celebrate the consistency of walking at least 10 minutes daily, and see how times you’re able to sustain 30 minutes daily.

In order to make your goal identification and action plan tracking easier, I’ve developed a 30-day Goal Progress Tracking guide.  Click here to download your FREE guide.

Use these three steps to help you take massive action toward achieving your goals.  Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

You don’t have to be perfect to achieve your goals.  You just have to make progress.

Focusing on what you can do to make progress toward your goal, and celebrating your forward momentum will help you develop consistency and confidence in your action plan.   Keep moving forward one step at a time, and eventually you will successfully accomplish your goal.

At the end of each day, ask yourself this question: “What is one thing I did today to help me get closer to my goal of _________?”

Show up.  Focus on good.  Get better.

 

If you would like more support and accountability in making your healthy lifestyle shifts,  join the Real and Well Community for FREE by following @realandwellhealth on Facebook and Instagram.   Share your healthy lifestyle goals with us!