An Antidote to Perfectionism Is Resourcefulness
Relying on systems can get you through those ‘off’ days
As someone with a history of letting perfectionism get the best of me, I’ve noticed that perfectionists tend to fall into two camps: those who are so worried about messing up that they never start, and those who get through the work with the constant worry that they’re failing themselves.
Here’s what the two types have in common: Both are often filled with anxiety, worry, and depression. And both fall into patterns of worry that render them helpless, as the authors of a study on perfectionism-induced procrastination explained in the journal Cognitive Therapy and Research. “Initially solvable problems will pile up,” they wrote, “thus creating an overload of problems that may finally be insoluble.”
Or, as comic book artist and writer Jack Kirby once put it, “Perfectionists are their own devils.”
How do you stop sabotaging yourself? There’s interesting research suggesting that learned resourcefulness can help. When you encounter a problem, instead of berating yourself for being unable to figure it out, you calmly fall back on the systems you’ve created for yourself — and then you put your problem-solving skills into action.
