A Quality of Thought: “A New Label for the Perfectionist.”

All day long, we label ourselves. Sometimes conveniently. Sometimes helpfully. And sometimes inconveniently unhelpfully!

For those of us (myself included!) that would unhelpfully label themselves the “Perfectionist”, here’s an alternative: be the “Optimalist”.

As a Perfectionist, my impossible standards lead to high stress, over-working, under-resting and an attempt to do it all. It’s not about things being perfect. It’s about things never being good enough.

As an Optimalist, I start from where I am and focus on incremental optimisation towards my high standards. I don’t add; I take away. I don’t insist on perfect; I focus on best within current constraints. I don’t do more of everything and less of nothing; I do more of what gets results and less of what doesn’t.

My coach continually challenges me with the question: how can you optimise what’s working? And I love that challenge. “Perfecting” to me is full of burden. “Optimising” is full of space, freedom, creativity and flow. Try it for yourself.

Drop perfectionism. Adopt optimisation.

The book recommendation that inspired this post: If you like where this idea is taking you, check-out Tal Ben-Shahar’s great book: “The Pursuit of Perfect”. A must-read for every perfectionist out there!

Thanks for reading!

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