Perfectionism is the Great Wall Of China surrounding our entire brain, so thick it enables us to cross sides. It’s a true wall! It’s the thing that makes us believe we need to be perfect when we really deep down its hiding a side that when it really does feel free, it is not good enough. It is not presentable enough. It is not perfect enough.
How many things did you stop doing, or take forever to finish, because of perfectionism? How long did you take on a project because of perfectionism?
It’s amazing at how much we can accomplish when we overcome this aesthetic standard that only we create for ourselves in our mind. What’s perfect to us may be hideous to someone else. This means that it really is a wall we built ourselves inside.
By eliminating perfectionism, think about all the things you can do in one sitting? What we can do to get to know it better is to explore it and also simply overcome it little by little.
Facing the things we want to overcome is the best way to actually overcome them. Such as fear, pain, and blockages. When we face them, we practice learning how to befriend them, get to know them, manage them, and then clear them.
Here we’re going to provide a journaling prompt and a overcoming perfectionism mini challenge so you can confront perfectionism and make huge progress in your day to day life once and for all. Complete one now and feel free to save the other one for later.
We get good at what we practice.
Note: this list will always be updating and expanding as necessary.
Writing letters is a great way to naturally confront something without having to do so much thinking. You can write letters to people, emotions, situations, actions of yours etc, and keep them for yourself.
Here we’re going to provide a journaling prompt and a overcoming perfectionism mini challenge so you can confront perfectionism and make huge progress in your day to day life once and for all. Complete one now and feel free to save the other one for later.
This is great healing work.
Set a timer for 5 or 7 minutes and write a letter to perfectionism. If you do it on paper, force your handwriting to be sloppy. Say whatever you need to, and pour all your perfectionism out of your system.
Close your eyes and meditate on perfectionism for a bit. When you’re done, open your eyes. Take a few deep breaths.
Create a poorly-done drawing of what perfectionism looks like to you.
When you’re done drawing, write anywhere on your paper “I am working to accept you just as you are. I will just do the damn thing from now on!”
*Tape this drawing somewhere on your wall where you can see it often for a week.* This will help you look at the messy drawing and live with it!
Grab a journal (it can be a scrappy used one it does not matter) and use this journal ONLY for imperfection. This is helpful because even though in some way it’s being an extreme organizer to keep all the messy things in one place, it still is a place that helps you release this necessity to be a certain way (perfect).
Give this journal a name that reminds you of freedom. Ultimately, freeing yourself from perfectionism allows your true wild side to come out and just BE.
When I went back to journaling after a few years of pausing, the first journal I used was a light purple, close-bound and blank page notebook. It was made more for drawing with color pencils and using sharpies because the paper was a bit thicker. But it was what I had, and to make it more appropriate with its artsy broken down aesthetic, I called this journal the “Book of Freedom” where I could create a judgment-free space and say whatever I want. And that helped me release my perfectionism and allow myself to write as raw and messy as possible.
Grab your Book of Freedom, and feel free to give it the same name if you want.