Do you work long hours? Do you find rest and downtime stressful? Do you suffer from anxiety? Are you constantly striving for more or to be better? Are you exhausted with the pressure of trying to be perfect?

Perfectionism appears to be becoming more and more prevalent in the workplace. I am definitely hearing more and more about it from my clients when they first come to work with me.

Before I go any further, I want to say that there are some benefits. Perfectionistic tendencies tend to make us great at detailed oriented work and we are able to deliver everything to a really high quality. These are great qualities and it is important to remember that we won’t lose them when we lessen our perfectionism – they’ll remain, but without the additional stress and anxiety associated with always being perfect.

Perfectionism can develop for a number of reasons. Perhaps you were a child of a perfectionist. It can also stem from believing your self worth is determined by your achievements and therefore seek praise and acceptance. It can also be motivated by a fear of failure. If everything is perfect then you can’t fail and you can’t be vulnerable. The problem is you can push yourself too much to keep achieving at this high standard.

Many years ago, I was struggling to balance my demanding career with motherhood – quite often I felt like I wasn’t very good at either. I sought some help and worked with an excellent therapist who introduced me to the concepts of ‘good’ and ‘good enough’. This has stuck with me and has been a helpful guide to navigating some of life’s challenges.

These are important distinctions when it comes to thinking about your perfectionism. Good enough is not about delivering mediocre or low quality work. It’s just that not everything is worthy of or requires 100% of your time and energy.

I encourage you to ask yourself ‘is this good enough?’ and be honest with yourself. Don’t let the little voice of perfectionism take over – but also don’t say it is, when you know that it isn’t.

Recently I worked with a client who found this ‘good enough’ technique revolutionary. She was running herself into the ground trying to be perfect at work and also at home. She’d spend 2 hours on routine tasks that could have taken 30 minutes and spend all of her time during the weekend making sure her family home looked perfect. Does this sound familiar?

Once I introduced her to the ‘good enough’ concept she was able to identify aspects of her job where she could apply this to – as well as times when this related to her home life. Consequently, she started to feel more comfortable delivering ‘good enough’ work which took the stress out of her work life and enabled her to have more time to spend with her family, and spend by herself.

She broke the cycle and you can too! Here’s how:

Start small: Identify 2 pieces of work where you can challenge yourself to deliver ‘good enough’

Define ‘good enough’ for you: what does it look like?

Allow yourself to experiment: focus on learning from the experience and don’t worry about making a mistake.

If this sounds like you and you’d like some more guidance, then please contact me to see how I can help you. You can contact me here.