Running a PT clinic is a challenging task that requires a great deal of skill, dedication, and hard work. It is easy to fall into the trap of perfectionism, striving for flawlessnessย in every aspect of your business. While striving for excellence is admirable, it can also be a double-edged sword that can hold you back from reaching your full potential.ย
โPerfectionismย is a symptom of something,โ Thomas Greenspon PhD, an expert on the topic and a recovering perfectionist himself, told me. โItโs not the disease.โ
At its core, perfectionism is about anxiety โ youโre afraid of failing or afraid that making a mistake means that thereโs something wrong with you. โPerfectionism is more than pushing yourself to do your best to achieve a goal; itโs a reflection of an inner self mired in anxiety,โ he adds.
According to Greenspon, the most highly successful people are actuallyย lessย likely to be perfectionistic, because perfectionism can leave you overwhelmed by doubt and indecision and make it difficult to bring any task to a conclusion.
So whatโs driving your perfectionism?ย Is it about proving your worth to others? Is it about avoiding feelings of shame or judgment? While you may think youโre trying to impress a boss who seems judgmental, oftentimes weโre proving ourselves to our parents โ who may or may not still be present in our lives โ or to an internalized critic weโve learned to hear above all others.
Like a lot of anxiety, perfectionism can become a comfortable habit. If weโve been leaning into it since childhood, maintaining the self-talk that powers our perfectionism feels like a superstition or an indispensable ritual. As entrepreneur and startup cofounder Sehreen Noor Ali says, โOur self-talk becomes like an old friend that maybe shouldโve been ditched a while ago.โ
Your perfectionism, your old friend, wonโt go away overnight.ย Nor will exercises alone assuage it. So my goal here is to help get you on the road to recovery by suggestingย new ways of thinking. Here are three to try:
1. Find the motivation
Like breaking any unhealthy habit, it helps to feel really motivated before you start to tackle your perfectionism.ย I find this question really helpful: What are you missing out on because youโre scared to be less than perfect?
For example, my fear of being shamed for public speaking held me back from applying for a TED talk. For years Iโd made fun of TED to anyone whoโd listen. I even wrote an article about how overrated TED talks are. But in truth, I desperately wanted to give one, because I knew they lend credibility to speakers and authors and help you get to the next level in a speaking career.
Voilร , there was my motivation.ย I also realized that if I was going to be a perfectionist, Iโd never reach that level, so I applied to seven various TED and TEDx talks. I got rejected from all of them. It hurt but frankly, I wasnโt ashamed. It felt like a badge of honor; it became a punch line for me.
And then one day I got an email from the TED team asking me to do a talk. Turns out they had seen my submissions and enjoyed them, even though they passed on them at the time. If I hadnโt found the motivation to โditch that old friend,โ as Noor Ali put it, I wouldโve missed my chanceย to land a coveted TED spot, which opened a lot of doors for me.
So what are you missing out on because youโre afraid to be less than perfect?ย Identify and name that experience, and youโve found your motivation.
2. Isolate your inner critic
You wouldnโt be a perfectionist without the thoughts that keep you there.ย Many perfectionists have common barbs we like to fling at ourselves.
Here are some examples of the perfectionisticย self-talkย Iโve heard in heavy rotation:
โขย Mind-reading: โIf I donโt give it 110 percent, my boss will find someone who does. Theyโll just fire meโ; ย โMy parents gave up a lot to send me to excellent schools and prepare me for a successful career, and I canโt let them downโ
โขย Labeling: โThe typo in my article wasnโt a careless error โ it happened because Iโm lazy and didnโt spend enough time proofreadingโ; โI canโt be mediocre; itโs not who I amโ
โขย Avoidance: โIโm never going to be able to write a good book, so Iโm not even going to tryโ
โขย Catastrophizing: โI donโt deserve what I have, and Iโd better work harder if I want to keep itโ
โขย Should statements: โIf I donโt run at lunch today, Iโm going to get out of shape โฆ so I should go, even though my knee hurtsโ
What voice speaks those lines in your head? Is it a specific person? Is it you? Can you take a moment to notice the next time you automatically chime in with a justification for your actions? How do you feel when your inner critic takes over? What emotions precede it? What could help calm your anxiety in the moment?
Hereโs one way to calm your negative self-talk, and youโll love it because it involves a little self-criticism.ย I say this with love, but being stuck in our heads โ ruminating and focusing on our flaws all the time โ is very self-centered.
For this method, I have my former therapist Wilma to thank. One day when I was anxious and frazzled about bombing something, Wilma said, โWhy do you have to be so special at everything? Whoever told you that?โ
I looked at her and said, โIโve always been special, since I was three years old.โ
To which Wilma replied, โWell, who says?โ
Who says, indeed? Where did I get the belief that I must be special and outstanding at everything?
Anxiety expert Alice Boyes notes that this narcissism is self-protective. โYou end up believing, โThe only way Iโve succeeded in life or the only way Iโm being accepted and loved โฆ is by being excellent, by overdoing everything,โโ she explains.
But thatโs another thought trap of perfectionism. The truth is that โnot being the best at everything isnโt a threat to you. It isnโt a threat to you getting what you want out of life.โ
Sometimes when Iโm stressing about a looming failure on my horizon, Iโll just tell myself, โWhy canโt you do bad work or have a bad day like everyone else?โ
Reminding myself that Iโm no more special than anyone else is not self-denigrating, and it isnโt a way to let myself off the hook. Itโs an act of self-compassion and a way to gently but effectively expose and address the underlying narcissistic tendencies that power perfectionism.
3. Learn to set โenoughโ goals
Dare yourself to set โenoughโ goals and practice using only appropriate effort โ rather than going all out and putting in extra effort.ย Appropriate effort is about doing something well but removing undue emotional investment in the outcome; itโs the opposite of our cultureโs expectation to always go above and beyond and always do our very best.
Buddhism teacher Sally Kempton writes that appropriate effort is any effort that doesnโt involve struggle. For Kempton, the secret of acting with appropriate effort is to ask herself, โIf this were the last act of my life, how would I want to do it?โ
How can you bring appropriate effort into your life?ย Why not practice being a C+ student? I know that probably made some of you gasp, but just hear me out. Not every project demands your best work. What if you gave only 79 percent? What if your next report doesnโt have prose that rises to the level of greatness? The key is to acknowledge the outcome. Will what you do be good enough for your boss? Will what you achieve be good enough for you? The answer to both is, almost surely.
Think about some happy accidents. Was there ever a time when a meeting was canceled or a deadline was extended, and you magically struck upon an idea or a solution that youโd been striving for? When the mind is free,ย creativity tends to happen. Remember that the next time youโre inclined to overwork and imagine brain space literally opening up as you decide to stop for the night.
To try this, practice on something outside of work.ย You could use exercise as a stand-in for setting limits on work time. Science shows we need only a certain amount of cardio and strength training every week to achieve our goals. So if you normally exercise for an hour a day, cut it to forty minutes. See what happens. Is the process less stressful? Do you dread the gym less? Hereโs a heads-up: if youโve been conditioned to achieve, as most of us have, this will make you feel like a failure for a short while. But only for a short while.
You may just find that what you gain โ more calm, easeful workdays, more unimpeded time and headspace โ is worth what youโll lose in so much anxious striving.ย And is that such a loss anyway? Of course not. Know that itโs OK to do some things less well in order to have the complete and healthy life you want.
Perform Practice Solutions helps you navigate the challenges that come with running a PT clinic. From selling your physical therapy practice to social media marketing, we are dedicated to helping clinic owners achieve their goals. Give us a call at (833) 764-0178 and visit our IG @performpracticesolutions.
Reference: [https://ideas.ted.com/3-ways-to-break-the-perfectionism-habit/]