Are you a Perfectionist?

I have a confession, and it is hard for me to admit it…  I am not a perfectionist. On the contrary, I’m sloppy,  I never think till the end and I always have to come back and correct things I’ve done.

For years that made me insecure and doubt my own achievements. I used to compare myself to those around me that were perfectionist, and were creating amazing results, which I could not dream of achieving.

However, after living for 21 years now, with a “recovering perfectionist” I’ve learned some lessons on the way.

If you suffer from this disease called perfectionism let me remind you. All perfectionists have one thing in common. You all achieve… NOTHING.

You are so obsessed with getting everything PERFECT that you forget that the goal is to COMPLETE things and not just start with them, or have the PERFECT research, or have the PERFECT implementation.

Those of you who suffer from this disease you know very well, down in the bottom of your heart that, at the end of the day, you are not achieving as much as you could have, due to this obsession that EVERYTHING needs to be PERFECT.

For those of you who suffer from it – I have two words – GROW UP!! This idea that everything has to be PERFECT is an infantile idea that was planted in your brain when you were very young and thought that you have to do it PERFECT in order to get the love, appreciation or recognition that you wanted.

It’s time to grow up from this notion.

On the other hand, if you are like me, you might have gotten into your head that you are not OK or good enough because you were comparing yourself to someone else.

The problem is that you probably compared yourself to someone who has been doing the same thing for years and you believe that you can achieve the same results as they are even though you only started now.

When you have a goal — whether it’s starting a business or eating healthier or traveling the world — it’s easy to look at someone who is already doing it and then try to reverse engineer their strategy.

I always say that modeling is the fastest way to grow.

But it’s equally important to remember that the systems, habits, and strategies that successful people are using today are probably not the same ones they were using when they began their journey.

What is optimal for them right now isn’t necessarily needed for you to get started. There is a difference between the two.

Let me clear it up for you.

You are never fully prepared before you take action

Learning from others is great and I do it all the time myself.

But comparing your current situation to someone who is already successful can often make you feel like you lack the required resources to get started at all.

If you look at their optimal setup, it can be really easy to convince yourself that you need to buy new things or learn new skills or meet new people before you can even take the first step toward your goals.

And usually, that’s not true. Here are some examples.

Starting a business.

When you’re an entrepreneur, it’s so easy to get obsessed with optimal. This is especially true at the start.

I can remember being convinced that I will not succeed without a great logo. After all, every successful company I looked at had a professional logo. I’ve since learned my lesson. Now my “logo” is just the name of this website and it works for me more than anything I’ve dreamt about.

Eating healthy.

Maybe the optimal diet would involve buying organic or some other super-healthy food strategy. But if you’re just trying to make steps in the right direction, why caught up in the details? Start small and simply buy another vegetable this week — whether it’s organic or not. There will be plenty of time for optimization later.

A huge part of any real success is learning something new in the process

Claiming that you need to “learn more” or “get all of your ducks in a row” can often be a crutch that prevents you from moving forward on the stuff that actually matters.

You can point out how your business mentor is successful because they use XYZ software, but they probably got started without it.


You can complain that your golf game is suffering because you need new clubs, but the truth is you probably just need two years of practice

Obsessing about the ultimate strategy or the ultimate diet or the ultimate golf club can be a clever way to prevent yourself from doing hard work.

What I’ve learned in my search for making things PERFECT is that the success I wish for is not about making it PERFECT in the first go. It is the journey you take that makes YOU a master in what you are doing.

I’m all for improvements, it’s that one percent gains that fill me with joy. It’s those tiny habits, which leave me fanatical. It’s that pigheaded level of consistency, which makes my heart flutter.

Don’t let visions of what is optimal prevent you from getting started in the first place.

An imperfect start can always be improved, but obsessing over a perfect plan will never take you anywhere on its own.

Now I’m curious…

What was your journey to make things”perfect”?

Share it with us in the comment box below - your experience and tips for making things better and perfect 

As a thank-you gift I will send you a video from my seminar of Women Do Business Differently

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Have a magical week! Vered