Perfectionism and Me.

This is about the fifth first blog I’ve started writing. I even have several that are almost finished. I have so many ideas floating around in my head and so many “starts”. I have a blog post started about “Movement During a Pandemic” written back in April. I have a blog introducing myself, I have one I’ve started about antiracism resources, I have one about Pride. I have one about the 10 hiking essentials. I start and stop and think to myself “I’m just not saying it exactly right. People will think I don’t know what I’m talking about”. I do the same thing with videos I’ve started making for YouTube and Instagram. Hell, just photos I’ve planned to share on IG will get almost to the “post” point and then I’ll erase it all because it’s just not right. 

Let’s move away from just social media and talk about other life stuff. I want to start running more but I only have one day a week now that I really have any time for that. I think, “well don’t bother then”. I have several books on my list to read and only have 5 minutes here and there so I figure that that isn’t enough time to even get into it. I won’t start any project unless I think I have time to finish it. As a yoga teacher, I always felt I must do at least an hour practice and if I don’t have that amount of time, might as well not do it. 

Perfectionism is making me freeze. It’s making me not even begin a project let alone finish it. If it’s not up to my “standards” why even try? This is no way to be productive and to share the things I want to share with others. 

I’ve decided to try following the mantra “done is better than perfect”. This has resonated with me for some time but I’m now going to try to live this in a way that allows me to feel like I have done the things I want to do and get done. 

One method is to start using a timer. I will set a 5 minute timer and sit down to read, or do the dishes or whatever. When the timer goes off, I will decide whether I have another 5 minutes or if I have to move on to something else. I will go for a walk or a run, even if I only have 20 minutes because I know I’ll feel better after I do that instead of zoning out on social media (not that there’s anything superior about movement than sitting and doing nothing, I just want to move more right now). I know that this technique I have described has a name and I would look it up right now but what will happen is that I would go down this rabbit hole online and never get this finished….so, if anyone reading this knows the technique, please share. I will also look it up later. 

It is okay if I only do a 10 minute yoga practice. Ten minutes is better for me than no minutes. Five minutes would be totally cool too. It doesn’t HAVE to be an hour or more every time. 

As far as social media and goes, I will do smaller projects more often instead of these big elaborate ideas. I will also put aside a big section of one day to do more for the full week instead of trying to do it more often. I will type out all of my thoughts on a subject and do a quick edit and get it out instead of waiting until I think it’s perfect. This blog post will get one look over and boom, I’ll publish it because damn it, I have on my website “blog coming soon” for like 6 months. 

Have you ever been brought down by a self perceived type of perfectionism? What have you done to overcome it? Can you relate? Is it different for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. 



I appreciate and celebrate you. 

Andrea