How To Give Up Perfectionism in 7 Steps

For creative people, perfectionism is one of the most dangerous and destructive tendencies we can have. In fact, let your perfectionist habits get out of hand, and before you know it, you’re not just obsessing about how to FINISH a creative project, but you can’t even decide which pencil to pick up to start drawing, which shade of green to use for the background of your new painting, or which word to begin the next sentence of your novel with!

So here are 7 steps to becoming aware of, and beating, perfectionism and setting your creativity free once more:

1. Admit you have perfectionist tendencies. The first step to beating perfectionism is to admit it’s something that limits your creativity. How often do you find yourself agonising over the perfect sentence, colour or chord structure? How much more creative would you be if you could make a decision quickly and then jump right into creating? Once you realise it’s that need to be perfect that’s restricting you, you’ll be more motivated to start to overcome it.
2. Notice when you’re most tempted to be perfect. For some, it’s when finishing creative projects that perfectionism is at its most prevalent, and the last 5% of a project - those final tweaks and adjustments – seems to take longer than the rest of the project combined. For others, it’s choosing a start point that is most difficult. As you create, notice the times when perfectionism appears most strongly for you.
3. Identify your biggest perfectionist habit. Narrowing down even further, what’s the one perfectionist habit that you keep reverting to time and time again? The one that you find yourself in the midst of before you even realise it? Again, this is all about awareness of your creative patterns and approaches. Once you single out the biggest culprit, you’ll do it less, and be more aware of the other ways perfectionism appears.
4. Practice making a mess. The first few steps here have been about awareness. Now it’s crunch time, time for action! A great exercise to practice is making a mess. Something as simple as buying a children’s colouring book then colouring all over the pages as if they were blank can seem almost criminal for some of us, but ultimately can be very liberating. Practice other ways of getting messy, just to experience the freedom that brings.
5. Pick a small new project. Practice over, time to create. Pick a new creative project to work on, something that stimulates and excites you. The simpler the better, think fun and free, not complicated and overly clever. Something you can start and finish in less than an hour is ideal, just to get used to each stage of creating without being perfect.
6. Focus on the creative adventure. Most of us get so obsessed about the “end product” that we forget to enjoy creating! This then makes us so cautious about making a mistake or not being perfect that our creativity freezes up in fear. Shift your focus instead to the creative adventure that every creative project is. It’s a voyage of discovery about you, the materials you’re working with and the endless possibilities in between. Enjoy it!
7. Stay vigilant. Following these steps will help you become aware of the perfectionism that has plagued your creativity for so long, and will give you a head start on overcoming it. The key now is to stay aware. Don’t get complacent and casual, thinking perfectionism has left for good. Stay vigilant to those habits, and cut them off before they start to affect your creative freedom!

Follow these 7 steps and you’ll be well on your way to beating the perfectionism that has been so destructive to your creativity in the past.