Earlier this week, I wrote about recognizing how my perfectionism limits me. This wasn’t a realization I’d ever had before, and even though I’ve talked to people about perfectionism, I was a bit blind to how it showed up in my own life. Now that I’ve become aware, I’ve gotten more interested in perfectionism as a concept and how it pops up in our lives. So, I decided to do a little research into the question: is perfectionism good for us or bad for us?
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Recognizing the Limits of Perfectionism – Part One
Writing about perfectionism feels tricky. On the one hand, I feel like there’s always more to learn about perfectionism and what it looks like in our every day lives. On the other hand, recognizing my own perfectionism doesn’t always solve the problems perfectionism creates, which feels like an endless cycle of discovering problems I can’t solve.
But in that endless pursuit of getting to know myself, I want to share something I learned the other day, that may be able to help you, too. It might seem counterintuitive, but my perfectionism has actually hurt my problem-solving skills and my ability to think critically. Here’s how I became aware of it, and how I’d like to change.
Continue readingFive Ways to Manage Perfectionism
This week on My Brain’s Not Broken, we’re talking about perfectionism. While it’s something that comes up in everyday life, perfectionism can be hard to spot, and even harder to deal with. When I was looking up how to manage and deal with perfectionism, I saw the same results as when I looked up how to manage self-doubt, which was that every article I found used terms like overcoming and get rid of when talking about perfectionism (which seems like an example of perfectionism itself). So, rather than provide tips on how to get over perfectionism, I wanted to share five ways that I try to manage my perfectionist tendencies, with the long-term goal of changing my attitude toward perfectionism.
Continue readingHow Perfectionism Impacts Mental Health
When I wrote last week’s post about why I feel like I’m always playing catch up, I thought a lot about perfectionism. It’s not something that crosses my mind often, but when I have time to reflect on how I treat myself, that word comes up. When I was growing up, no one ever made a connection between perfectionism and mental health. Perfectionism was a personality trait, and some people had it and others didn’t. But the more I learn about mental health, the more I’ve learned that it’s not so black and white. It’s always existed, but perfectionism effects our mental health in very unique ways in 2021 – and that’s what I want to talk about today.
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My Brain's Not Broken 