Perfection paralysis, the all-or-nothing mentality

It’s not just you. Perfection paralysis is a problem that affects millions of people worldwide and keeps them from living their lives to the fullest.

Perfection paralysis is the fear or avoidance of making mistakes that often lead to depression, anxiety, and inevitably to procrastination. This cycle can be difficult to break because it feels like doing something wrong will mean that you’re not good enough.

The reason for this is quite simple: you feel like if you don’t achieve perfect results, it means you will have failed once again. This paralysing fear is detrimental to your productivity and ability to take risks. As a result, you end up giving up before even starting because you know how difficult it will be to complete what seems insurmountable.

There are many reasons why you may become caught up in the cycle of perfectionism-procrastination. You may be struggling with feelings of insecurity or self-doubt, or you may feel like you need to always perform at your best in order to be respected or liked.

Regardless of the reason, the reality is that this cycle perpetuates your perfection paralysis and that is exactly what sets you up for failure. When you constantly put pressure on yourself to do things perfectly, it becomes difficult to take risks or make mistakes. And when you don’t try new things out because you’re scared of messing them up, your skills stagnate and you eventually lose interest in both your hobbies and work activities.

In short, expecting perfection just gives you two choices: either complete everything correctly on your first attempt or don’t bother at all. In reality, there is only one choice because, on average, human beings make mistakes on their first attempt.

The perfectionism-procrastination cycle

The vicious cycle of perfectionism-procrastination develops when you set too many expectations on yourself. You become convinced that you cannot do anything right, which makes you even more reluctant to start anything in the first place. And as soon as you finally do begin working on something, voila! The anxiety has returned in full force, along with the feeling of guilt for having let things slip again.

This cycle only gets worse the more it’s repeated. And the longer it takes you to break free from it, the worse the situation will become.

So, how do you break the perfectionism-procrastination loop?

There’s no magic bullet for breaking out of this cycle, but there are some steps that can help you get started on the path to recovery.

The key solution lies in recognizing when you’re engaging in this thinking process and implementing strategies for modifying your response to each situation accordingly.

Here are some proven and highly effective techniques to break the cycle and overcome your lingering perfection paralysis:

1.  Set realistic but challenging goals

2.  Break activities into smaller pieces

3.  Practice Reframing your thoughts (Cognitive Restructuring)

• Recognize when your mind is getting stuck in the cycle
• Identify negative thoughts and write them down. 
• Assess the rationality of each thought and its reasonableness.

4.  Practice self-acceptance and self-compassion

 Takeaways

Perfectionists frequently hold themselves to unattainable standards. They have a tendency to be self-critical, which makes them more likely to delay or avoid doing tasks because they believe that they need to do them perfectly.

Because of this, perfectionists often have problems with perfection paralysis, which is a form of procrastination that can turn into a long-term, self-perpetuating cycle.

There’s no magic bullet for breaking out of the cycle of perfectionism-procrastination, but there are some steps that can help you get started on the path to recovery.

If you want to know more about procrastination or perfectionism send me a message and we can chat!