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Perfectionism and small gains

Deleted User

"Learn to love incremental improvements

A paradox perfectionists face in trying to reduce self-sabotage is their tendency to have inflexible standards and be dismissive of incremental gains. They want to solve a problem completely, right now, and aren’t motivated by solutions that improve a problem by, say, one, 10, or 20 percent—even if these solutions are almost effortless.

When you start to appreciate the beauty of making incremental improvements, you’ll see easy solutions that you’d previously been overlooking. Over time, even tiny improvements add up significantly. It can be extremely helpful to ask yourself, “How could I improve this by one percent?” instead of “How can I completely eliminate this sabotaging habit?” For instance, you might ask yourself, “How can I improve my problem of overeating by one percent?” "

I found the above and thought it was an interesting perspective which I had never considered before.

greatergood.berkeley.edu/.../how_to_stop_sabotaging_yourself

  • Thanks for that, its something I've had difficulties with in the past and may again.

    With perfectionism a good starting to point is to work on the thoughts that make you doubt yourself or your work - turn down the dial to 'good enough'.

    Then, yes, focus on tiny improvements you notice whilst working on things.

  • Great suggestion. My coping strategy is to break things down into more manageable pieces and do a bit every day.  Less stress this way and the overall goal is achieved incrementally and over time. 

  • in reply to Ann :)

    I think sometimes, if I am tiredm i can take too many small steps instead of thinking "this will do" and end up overdoing it. It's difficult to recognise until it's too late.

  • Thanks for sharing this. Exactly what I needed to hear right now. I have a tendency to do things 100% or not do them at all or otherwise beat myself up about it. 'Baby steps/ small improvements' often seem less appealing to me as it is harder to see the improvement (so less rewarding in the short term), so it requires more patience. This approach reminds me of my strategy when hiking a long uphill section- if I am tired I ask myself "Can I do one more step?" and I always can and eventually I make it to the top, one step at a time. So I think this concept of tiny improvements is great and something I want to learn to do in everyday life.