How to Punch Perfectionism in the Face

YOUTUBE  📚 THE READING LIFE  📚  PATREON

Read on The Competitive Advantage.com | Read Time: ~15 Minutes

📚 Hey, good evening! Time to win.

Well, I just unintentionally lived what I teach.

I just punched perfectionism in the face without even trying! Allow me to share, in the hopes that what I have to say will help you as well:

Perfectionism has plagued me for quite a while, and I’m still not “over it” - I think I’m uncurable, but I am getting better.

But one of the temporary cures for it is something I talk about in this video here, among other ideas, which is to intentionally release imperfect work as a kind of “exposure therapy” for perfectionists.

When you’re getting over a particular fear, what can be helpful is to expose yourself to smaller doses of what you fear over an extended period of time, until you get acclimatized to it and start to fear it less.

If you’re afraid of the water, the first day you just dip your toes in.

Then maybe next week you let the water touch your ankles, etc.

Well I’ve found that intentionally publishing articles or videos with slight errors can work the same way.

I just sent out an email to nearly 3,200 people with a pretty dumb typo, and I don’t feel great about it.

It wasn’t intentional - I don’t want to give you the idea that this was all part of some master exposure therapy plan.

In my rush to hit “publish” and get to the gym, I didn’t notice that there was a sentence stuck in there that made zero sense in context.

I don’t feel great about it, but do you know what?

The email is sent, not all 3,200 people will even open it, fewer will notice, and most won’t care.

The vast majority won’t care.

Another email goes out on Friday - my “Five Books Friday” email for The Reading Life - and I’ll probably make another few typos in taht onne to!

Life goes on.

If I can offer advice from someone who hasn’t figured out the whole perfectionism thing yet, it’s that most of us are just too hard on ourselves…on the wrong things.

Where we SHOULD be harder on ourselves - our values, our integrity, our work ethic - those things are non-negotiable.

But a type never killed anyone (don’t quote me on that) and your self-worth isn’t defined by one single action or mistake.

Tomorrow is another day.

Here’s the full video if you want learn more ways to punch perfectionism in the face, and NOW I’m on my way to the gym.

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Until next time…happy reading!

All the best,

Matt Karamazov

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