20 ways to be a perfectionist.

We grow up with the phrase “Nobody’s perfect.” We also get told to do our ‘best’ and that’s all we can do. There’s no shame in trying, and success is a bunch of failures strung together, so we learn what not to do. What If I told you we *could* be perfect. What if I said your best isn’t good enough, that there is shame in trying and failing, and that success isn’t learning based on a bunch of failures. With the following tips I will show you how to be a perfectionist. Never settle for second best.

  1. Be highly critical of your own mistakes. You’re not perfect until you’re perfect. Keep trying if you don’t meet certain expectations.
  2. Never get any projects done because it’s ‘never good enough’. Trust me it isn’t even NEAR good enough.
  3. Obsess over minor details, the smaller the better.
  4. Fear failure; you can’t fail; you will not fail; not even once.
  5. Never think in shades of gray, it’s either perfect or it isn’t.
  6. Beat yourself up because you’re just not perfect like you should be.
  7. Take yourself very seriously.
  8. Don’t give yourself an inch.
  9. Constantly moan and complain to others about your mistakes.
  10. Remember everything you do is wrong.
  11. Start to revise or re-factor from the start, don’t wait until things are done, you are a perfectionist after all.
  12. You need to redo that project just one more time.
  13. Anything that is less than perfect is unacceptable; just get that in your mind right now!
  14. Having high standards is great, having impossible standards is even better.
  15. Just remember you are NEVER happy with what you have produced, and you never will.
  16. Don’t focus on the end result or the big picture, only focus on the details.
  17. Aim to be the best in everything you do, even if you don’t do it very well or don’t like it.
  18. Spend your time on the 80% that doesn’t matter rather than the 20 that does.
  19. Feature creep is the perfectionist’s friend. Feature creep is the phenomenon where you have more things you want to put in that keeps creeping up on you until you’re covered with it. It’s never going to be perfect unless it has tons and tons of features.
  20. It’s all or nothing.

Until ‘Monday’

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