I'm Alex and I'm a Recovering Perfectionist

#devjournal #codenewbie #womenintech

This post was originally published on May 27, 2020 on my blog.

I believed for so freaking long that I wasn't a perfectionist.

I simply couldn't be! I mean, I wasn't perfect by any means. And, like, maaaaybe I'd be a perfectionist if things were perfect in my life, but they weren't, so...there.

But the thing is... I've learned now that being a perfectionist is actually exactly that: thinking and really believing that things could be perfect in some far-off reality that might be possible to achieve if I worked hard enough for it.

This far-off reality is actually just a fluke. It's an unrealistic idea, and even if you're not consciously striving for it, you might subconsciously be thinking that things in your own life and work aren't perfect, so therefore you're doing it wrong and need to work so extremely hard just to pass it off as just OK.

It's suuuch a vicious cycle. And now that I've realized I've been acting that way for so long, I'm on a daily mission to combat that type of thinking.

Just this morning, I was considering starting to really design my days by putting my work schedule on a calendar blocked off by 2- to 3-hour chunks. As my mind started to spin out to designing some beautiful, aesthetically-pleasing printable on Canva, I stopped myself right then and there and resolved to use a pencil and a perfectly-suitable blank piece of paper.

Anytime I'm caught in the throes of making whatever I'm working on Just a Tiny Bit Better™ and ultimately losing hours of my time and droves of my mental energy to that pursuit of an impossible ideal, I give myself the benefit of the doubt and get used to thinking that it's perfectly good enough.

Good Enough is powerful. Good Enough is the move.

If you're a perfectionist (or if you didn't realize you actually could be until right now), let Good Enough guide you and set you free.

Now let's be friends over on Twitter >>