Overcoming Perfectionism

On our Artist’s Way group call yesterday, one topic we discussed was the idea of recovering a sense of power through taking imperfect action.

This coping and defense mechanism of leaving things unfinished due to shame or perfectionism is often used by many of us- inherently we are all artists. 

Artistry comes in many forms. Art is whatever craft you are working on, whether it be the food you are cooking for dinner, the lesson plan you are creating for your students, or that photo you’ve spent an hour perusing over and editing. 

For many of us, we’ve endured childhood shaming and have associated these memories of the past to us not being good enough or that our work is not worthy to be finished or even seen. 

Remember all the A’s you received and that one B was the thing that caught your parents' attention?

Over time, our subconscious mind has created the deep-rooted belief that whatever we create will be shamed, so we cope by not finishing, through self-judgment and perfectionism, or receiving validation by showing the friends you know who won’t really care, which further confirms your theory that you shouldn’t finish because it doesn’t matter anyway.

When we are able to move through this comfort zone, we are practicing stepping into imperfection action vs. inaction and will be more accustomed to learning to take risks. With each step, there becomes a new level of comfort.