recovering perfectionist

I have struggled with perfectionism most of my life. Now that I'm into my 30s, I feel like I'm definitely on the road to perfectionism recovery. It has taken a lot of work, but it's definitely been worth it. I know I have times when I fall back into old perfectionist tendencies and thoughts, but overall I'm doing well.

Here are a few thoughts on perfectionism from Julia Cameron's fabulous book, The Artist's Way. See if any of these ideas resonate with you:

"Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move ahead. It is a loop--an obsessive, debilitating closed system that causes you to get stuck in the details of what you are writing or painting or making and to lose sight of the whole."

"The perfectionist writes, paints, creates with one eye on her audience. Instead of enjoying the process, the perfectionist is constantly grading results."

"To the perfectionist, there is always room for improvement. The perfectionist calls this humility. In reality it is egotism."

"Perfectionism is not the quest for the best. It is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the part that tells us that nothing we do will every be good enough--that we should try again."

"Usually, when we say we can't do something, what we mean is that we won't do something unless we can guarantee that we'll do it perfectly."

"Question: What would I do if I didn't have to do it perfectly?"
Answer: A great deal more than I am."

"We've all heard that the unexamined life is not worth living, but consider too that the unlived life is not worth examining."

Think about it.

Namaste'
Yogadiva