Struggling with Perfectionism

One of my favorite podcasts released an episode that resonated with me a lot:

I struggle with perfectionism a lot. And the many examples Curran hits home hard.

"Good enough" is very hard to come by for me. While it is best to pursue excellence, I noticed I have a tendency to pursue it more for fear of not being enough than for wanting to be good. I tell people I have a growth mindset but the episode above made me rethink that.

I am incredibly self critical - which is not a good thing. Beating myself up wasn't incredibly helpful for my growth. Even if it was, I know I could have done better.

Thus, I decided to stop the Sisyphean task of achieving perfection. While the episode gives a lot of good tips, I decided to do some things further:

1. Focus on progress. I have a tendency to focus on perfect streaks but I know for a fact this is unsustainable. It only takes a single day to break a streak but it doesn't mean that I am not making progress.
2. Practice more self compassion. Perfectionists have a tendency to set high goals. But once I achieve those goals, I make them even higher - which means I have impossible goals. So it's weird that if I don't meet them, I am very self critical. But treating myself as my friend can help curb the need to be perfect.
3. Manage my anxiety. I may possibly not have general anxiety disorder but I do know that I get incredibly anxious whenever I start a task. I am fearful of failure and learning to be less afraid of it could help in my pursuit of excellence rather than perfection.

I do know that this will be a long journey and there will be bumps along the way. I just hope I have enough self compassion to go along with it.