How to Be an Imperfectionist Quotes

“We make the grave error of redefining partial success as “failure.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“Care less about results. Care more about putting in the work. Care less about problems. Care more about making progress despite them. Or if you must fix something, focus on the solution. Care less about what other people think. Care more about who you want to be and what you want to do. Care less about doing it right. Care more about doing it at all. Care less about failure. Care more about success. Care less about timing. Care more about the task. In general, the idea behind imperfectionism is to not care so much about conditions or results, and care more about what you can do right now to move forward with your identity and your life.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.” ~ Kim Collins”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“Never forget this: It’s easier to change your mind and emotions by taking action than it is to change your actions by trying to think and feel differently.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“Imperfectionism is NOT laziness, low standards, contentment with failure, disinterest in excellence and improvement, or apathy. At its core, imperfectionism is pursuing and doing good things in life without so much as hoping for (let alone expecting) perfection. It’s prioritizing doing over doing well. This doesn’t rule out doing things well; it only takes away the crippling fear of not doing well.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“Never use guilt as motivation.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“Perfectionism makes you stay home, not take chances, and procrastinate on projects; it makes you think your life is worse than it is; it keeps you from being yourself; it stresses you out; it tells you that good is bad; and it ignores the natural way in which things work.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“When something is chance based, be stubbornly persistent. There’s no reason to quit a (free) chance-based venture. Ever. It’s irrational to quit unless it costs you something. It’s free to submit guest post articles, ask women to go to dinner with you, apply for dream jobs, or ask your boss for a raise. There can be many upsides if you get positive results, so take action without apologizing. Be the most aggressive person you know! When something fails, try a different approach. Concrete failure, as opposed to chance failure, gives you an opportunity to eliminate that way of doing things (Edison’s failed lightbulb prototypes are a popular example of this). When you suspect a negative result comes from a combination of chance and failure, be persistent, but try varying strategies to the degree that you think it’s failure.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“There is no perfect plan and no perfect scenario, because life happens. As helpful it is to be able to plan, it’s equally important to adapt to changing circumstances and problems. It’s important to understand that you will be significantly and continually impacted by imperfection—from yourself, the world, and others.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“A common, false assumption is that aiming for perfection gets you closer to it. The opposite is true: Embracing imperfection will bring you closer to perfection than a perfectionist mindset will.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“In addition, school teaches us that 'A efforts' bring 'A results.' Real life shows us that 'A efforts' only give us a chance at 'A results.' Students can go out into the job market, do all the right things, and still get a real-life 'F' when they aren't selected for a job.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Fearlessness, Confidence, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“The key to building powerful confidence is to decide specifically what you can be confident about right now, and build from there.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“The Pomodoro Technique: Work 25 minutes, rest five minutes. Repeat.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“We make the grave error of redefining partial success as “failure.” If it isn’t whole and complete, we find it embarrassing at best and humiliating at worst. This isn’t merely irrational—it’s lethal to our progress and well-being!”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“It’s interesting to look at the most skilled people in various professions and think, She used to be terrible at this, and He used to be unskilled at that. The road to excellence begins unimpressively.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“a mini habit is a too-small-to-fail behavior you do every day.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“Really think about that for a moment. The girl who won this race made a huge mistake; those who lost didn’t make any noticeable mistakes. Too often, we assume that making a mistake means that we automatically lose, but usually it’s just that they discourage us into a mindset that makes us lose. If Heather tripped, gave up hope, and lost, we’d all say she lost because she tripped. But since we know she was able to win the race despite tripping, that would have been a false assumption. If Heather gave up after tripping, she wouldn’t have lost the race because she tripped; she would have lost because she let the trip discourage her from continuing to try. I’m sure she’s glad she kept trying. It makes you wonder about the times you’ve given up too soon.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“If you find yourself ruminating about something, come back and go through this process. As you move through it, the subsequent steps become easier. For example, it may be extremely difficult to focus on the present moment right away when you catch yourself ruminating, but if you first accept the past, consider chance and failure, and adjust your self-talk, it will become much easier.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“Make a mental note to flag anytime you think of what you “should” have done. When you catch yourself doing this, reevaluate the situation and replace it with “could.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“Rumination is a desperate, futile attempt to change the past by thinking about it. It’s a form of denial, and acceptance is the antidote. Acceptance means that you’ll be hit with the full force of the pain—and it will hurt if it’s something serious—but once you do it, you give yourself the best chance to move beyond it. Acceptance of your humanity is equally paramount. You’re allowed to make mistakes—even horrific ones—because you’re human.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“Caring About The applications for “result apathy” are numerous: Improve your test-taking ability by not caring so much about your grade Be more relaxed in social situations by not caring so much about rejection Deliver a better speech by not caring about mistakes or imperfect delivery Become less anxious by not caring so much about your anxious thoughts and feelings (let them be and don’t fight them) Reduce your depression by caring less about how many negative thoughts you think Improve your productivity by caring less about how much (or what quality of) work you get done”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“our actions greatly impact how we feel, and the effect is so powerful that it changes us even if we don’t want or mean for it to.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“It’s easier to change your mind and emotions by taking action than it is to change your actions by trying to think and feel differently.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“Never enough” is rooted in general discontent, malaise, and hopelessness. It implies that satisfaction and contentment are out of reach no matter what one does. Because there is no end in sight, there is no satisfaction—only guilt and shame. Perfectionists continue to look for satisfaction in what they do when it can only be found in what they think about what they do.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“Contentment isn’t passivity.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“The primary benefits of becoming an imperfectionist are reduced stress and greater results by taking positive action in more situations. The more fearless, confident, and free a person is, the more they embrace imperfection in their life.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“If you don’t manage to reframe perfectionism as a damaging and inferior mindset, the illusion of its superiority will thwart your desired changes.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“Most people aren’t as concerned with being praised as much as they are about preventing embarrassment. Author and researcher Brené Brown says that perfectionism is a 20-ton shield we carry around in hopes that it protects us from harm.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“If you overestimate others, you’d have to be perfect just to meet their level. If you see yourself as subpar, you’d have to be perfect just to seem average in your own eyes.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism

“Inferiority complexes create a powerful negative affirmation bias; every blunder is magnified evidence that confirms your feelings, and every misstep is a catastrophe. Insecurity and inferiority complexes alike make you hypersensitive to your flaws. Holding on to this idea that if you’re careful you won’t make mistakes gives a false sense of security.”
― Stephen Guise, How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism