Perfectionism can often be a difficult neurosis to deal with for those who suffer from anxiety and depression. Here I give you my tips on getting your brain to retrain itself to seek attainable goals and not go haywire if things aren’t 100% perfect. Looking to overcome your own neurotic perfectionism? Here’s how to get started! Don’t forget to share your own tips or things that help you in the comments below.
Onto the Video
How to Overcome Neurotic Perfectionism
- Focus on “just beginning.” Instead of creating a list of things you have to have done before you get started, just throw the list away and do something right now. This is a hard one because it seems hardwired in your system to make a list of things to do before you do the things, but if you just force yourself to begin the task, you’ll realize the massive to-do list is a procrastination technique.
- Try to keep an eye on the big picture. When beginning a new project, try to take a look at the big picture first and then remove unnecessary steps to getting the job done. You will find that there are often 3 or 4 tasks you’ve created for yourself that are unnecessary.
- Prioritize doable tasks first and create manageable task chunks instead of looking at everything that needs to be done. You will probably feel overwhelmed by saying “I need to clean my whole house” but “gather all the things in the living room that don’t belong there is a much more manageable chore. When you finish one task, allow yourself to feel good about it and move onto another manageable task.
- Make giving yourself praise a priority. Likewise, train yourself to think of failure as a learning experience. We all have things that we do well and we all have things that we need to improve on. If you learn to be honest with yourself about both, hopefully you can retrain your brain to think of failure as an opportunity for growth instead of a personal indictment.
- Make sure you have reasonable expectations for yourself and others. If even you have a hard time reaching your own standards, the people around you will likely have problems with them, too. Nobody likes to feel like they can’t do anything right and we often push our standards onto our loved ones and alienate them in the process. Remember, you cannot do ALL THE THINGS. Take your standards down to a livable level and let some of that stress go.
At the end of the day, the only person who can help you is you, but I believe in you. Retraining your brain isn’t easy, but it’s possible if you focus on it. Just remember to take it one manageable chunk at a time.
