Finding Peace with Perfectionism

Wow! That’s a pretty tough standard to live up to.

I should know. I could never live up to my own standards and nothing was ever good enough.

My body shape, my intelligence, my face, the way I did a lift or exercise….nothing was ever good enough and I always beat myself up over it.

As you can imagine, this attitude caused a lot of sleepless nights and feelings of sadness and “unloveablity”.

It also caused a lot of missed opportunities and missed fun. 

Eventually, I became tired of the stress I was causing myself and made a decision that my best would have to be good enough.

And you know what? Our best…yours and mine, changes from day to day and from activity to activity.

Someone said to me,  “Sometimes there isn’t a right or a wrong. There just “is”.”

When you are a perfectionist, you are always looking for the “most right” thing to do.

But sometimes, there is simply a state of “being” and when you change your perception from doing/having something  perfect to the perception of “this is just how it is” there is a huge relief!

So often when it comes to how our bodies move, we can’t always control it.

It might sound weird, but it happens all of the time. Maybe the client had an injury or experiences so much stress that their body doesn’t move the way it used to.

When you’re a perfectionist and your body doesn’t move a certain way, it can be frustrating and annoying.

But, when you give yourself a little grace and shift your thoughts to be more forgiving, you begin to realize that, just like most things in life, there is a process and a fair amount of wiggle room.

Wiggle room to not have to be perfect.

Wiggle room for your body (and mind) to have a range.

Meaning, for example, you can have a range of hip mobility, a range of emotions, a range of eating habits, a range in your body size….and They are ALL GOOD.

So, finding peace with perfectionism, I think, is accepting that life offers you wiggle room….and it’s good to have some wiggle room.