Perfectionism

Want to kill your confidence? Practice perfectionism.

Confidence grows with achievements. The more you achieve, the more confident you feel about your abilities. And if you are a perfectionist, you might find yourself achieving less than others. Simply because it takes you longer to finish anything.

Imagine you are tasked with writing a paragraph on a piece of paper. It needs to be readable to other people. So you try your best and pay attention to how you write the letters.

Now imagine the same task but this time you need to make sure all the letters are exactly the same size. You are given a ruler to check them all and make sure they are identical to a millimetre. It would probably look better but would it be worth all the extra effort and time?

That’s the essence of perfectionism. Spending too much time on detail that is adding very little value. And if that wasn’t enough, there’s the added ‘benefit’ of procrastination. Yes, you read that right. If you are a perfectionist, you might find yourself procrastinating more. The prospect of starting this new thing that needs to be perfect is just too daunting. The fear of failure prevails and another day goes by with not a lot done.

Most things in life are not perfect and don’t have to be perfect. Adopting the ‘good enough’ mindset will help you achieve more and feel more confident as a result. And it applies to all areas of your life: relationships, careers, families, cooking, holidaying, exercising and yes, even wedding planning. The unpolished weddings tend to be a lot more fun than the perfect ones anyway.