Break the Cycle of Perfectionism

Text Michele

Step into a transformative conversation that connects the dots between perfectionism and procrastination. While many of us strive for perfection, we often find that the very standards we set can lead to delays and avoidance. In today's lighthearted discussion, Michele points out how perfectionism and procrastination are linked in a vicious cycle, and then she offers two simple strategies to break that cycle.

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Episode Transcript

Michele (00:00):
Good morning, it's Wednesday, March 5th and this is
Rise and Reign.
Welcome to the Rise and Reignpodcast, your five minutes a day
, five days a week, burst ofmorning inspiration.
Join me, Michele Kus, everyMonday through Friday as I bring
you a piping hot, fresh-bakeddaily Kus word.

(00:23):
Yeah, see what I did there,good morning.
Or if you're my friend, Carmen,who told me the other day that
she caught the show at 10 pm atnight, good night.
Instead of Rise and Reign,Carmen is going to Rest and
Reign, which also starts with R,so we're good.

(00:44):
Rest and rain, which alsostarts with R, so we're good.
And happy birthday to mysister-in-law, Connie, who I
hope is not listening to thisbecause she's off on the
adventure of a lifetime visitingHo Chi Minh City and hiking
trails and not climbing intotiny tunnels that have spikes in
them.
And yes, Connie, that is a goodlife choice.

(01:05):
Thank you, we want you home inone piece.
Also, I want to give a thanksto Cheryl from Neenah Wisconsin
for texting in, so she sent thisreally cool text.
It said wow, I have nevercorrelated procrastination with
perfectionism.
You unlocked something for me,thank you.

(01:27):
I have always beat myself upwith the words lazy or sloth,
talk about a double whammy.
I'm neither of those things.
Yet my procrastination was aglaring example to me that I
must be those things, that Imust be those things Smiling
emoji with sweat drop.
I so appreciate this word.

(01:48):
Knowing procrastination islinked to my perfectionist
tendencies has brought me somuch joy because I know how to
deal with those.
Awesome yes, Cheryl, that hasbeen such a helpful connection.
When I first learned that too,I'm so glad that that little

(02:10):
insight unlocked something inyou, because, girl, we need you
fully unlocked in this world,right?
And isn't it so funny how wecan call ourselves these words
like she was beating herself upwith the words lazy and sloth.
We can be so hard on ourselvesand take on these words almost
as an identity, and once westart doing that, it gets really

(02:33):
hard to shake that.
So I have great news for youyou are not lazy, you are not a
sloth and you're not aperfectionist Not anymore,
because one of the things I wantto do on this podcast is get
your words that you're speakingover yourself aligned with

(02:56):
heaven, and if heaven's notsaying that about you, then
you're not saying that about youeither.
So I want to dive into this linka little bit deeper that Cheryl
hit on this link betweenperfectionism and
procrastination because they areoften feeding into each other

(03:16):
in this kind of vicious cyclethat can be sometimes hard to
break if that has become a habitin your life.
So perfectionism sets theseimpossibly high standards and it
can make tasks feeloverwhelming because of the high

(03:36):
standards, or it can make thetask even feel paralyzing.
So when you feel like you'renot able to meet those standards
, then procrastination is a wayout.
Right.
It just becomes a way to avoidthe potential failure that is
inevitable, or the feelings ofinadequacy that are inevitable

(03:59):
when you don't meet the highstandard.
That's kind of how those twothings are linked, and so here's
how it works.
You might have, like, a fear offailure, so perfectionists might
delay starting a task becausethey fear they won't do it just
right.
I mean, the pressure that weput on ourselves to achieve

(04:22):
flawless results can make evenstarting feel way too risky,
right?
So we don't even start, likethis podcast.
It took me so long to evenstart the podcast.
I talked about doing a podcastfor probably three years before
I actually started, because Iwas so afraid that it was going

(04:46):
to be overwhelming and I wasgoing to fail and look like a
fool.
So it took me forever to start.
And then there's this overwhelmand anxiety.
So the thought, just the merethought, of producing perfect
work.
You see how I'm not evenediting this, guys?
I have really overcome a lot ofperfectionism.

(05:08):
It can be so daunting that itleads to this mental exhaustion
that can kick in before you evenstart the task.
Procrastination can provide thistemporary relief, like the
psychological relief from thispressure, but it's kind of a
false relief and it'sshort-lived, because you have

(05:30):
that looming deadline or thatunfinished task in the
background that's creating thiskind of underlying low-grade
stress in your brain.
And then you have thislast-minute rush, with sometimes
some self-criticism baked in,that eventually the task has to

(05:51):
get done.
So you do it in a frantic rush.
The result might not meet yourperfectionistic standards, and
so that's where theself-criticism can come in.
So you feel like you failed oryou didn't quite meet up to it,
and so that kind of feeds backinto the perfectionistic mindset

(06:11):
.
So it's this vicious cycle.
So I'm going to give you acouple things you can do right
now, super easy, to help breakthe cycle, and the first one is
you can set what I call goodenough goals.
I'm telling you no two words inthe English language that have
set me free more than the wordsgood enough.

(06:34):
Instead of aiming forperfection, set a goal to
complete a task in a way thatit's good enough.
I'm going to write a roughdraft.
I'm going to clean my closet.
I'm going to whatever it is,it'll be good enough, right.
Cleaning the house is a big one,because you can clean and clean

(06:55):
and it'll be spotless.
But guess what?
That sucker's getting dirtyagain.
So just go for good enough,right.
The other thing that you can dois use the five-minute rule and
commit to just working on thetask for five minutes and no
more.
Just set the timer, work on thetask and once it hits five

(07:15):
minutes, you're done.
Go do something else.
This is really helpful for kids, who have maybe a little bit of
a chaotic bedroom, but theyfeel overwhelmed at the thought
of cleaning the whole thing.
Just have them set a timer fiveminutes.
Whatever you can clean, throwaway, declutter, whatever, do it

(07:35):
for five minutes.
When the timer goes off, you'redone, okay.
So there you go.
Good enough, five-minute rule.
Two quick things you can dotoday to hopefully help break
the cycle of perfectionism.
All right, that's what I gotfor you today.
I hope you enjoyed today's GoodEnough episode and if you did
enjoy it, share it with a friendand you can send me a text

(07:57):
message.
You can send it right from yourphone Just click the link in
the show notes that says TextMichele, and send me your ideas
on how you have overcome thatperfectionism procrastination
cycle.
I would love to hear it.
Thanks for joining me today onthis good enough episode.

(08:18):
Have an awesome day and I willsee you again tomorrow.