The Pressure of Perfection

So many times in our lives we get shown that you have to be perfect to be good enough. Social media shows us perfect lives. With the people around us we see the side of their personal lives that we want to see, not how things really are. Most of the time we aren’t even seeing the world as it actually is and the pressure to find perfection creates a distortion between our expectations and reality. This is dangerous.

Not only does it distort our expectations for our own lives but it makes us feel not enough. As someone who used to be proud to describe herself as a perfectionist, I can now say it is one of my biggest downfalls. I spend hours more on assessments, start them sooner and agonise on how I can get the closest to a perfect grade when realistically for me it’s not achievable. I can overthink every decision, want to change my mind 24/7 so I can make the ‘best’ one and then cry about it later because it didn’t turn out the way I so desperately needed it to. 

Take this podcast for example. When I first started it almost 2 years ago I expected that it would be this perfect show, with me showing up being this queen of advice and support and then becoming famous (even though fame was never the goal). How far I was from the truth. What I’ve learned is far from that. People feel more seen and connected to when they see someone like them. To me that became, showing up and offering my best on the good weeks, just showing up and hoping that’s enough on the harder ones or even disappearing when things fall apart but showing that you can always come back to yourself. 

Perfectionists don’t want to be perfect. They want what they think everyone else has. 

It’s time for me to unpack just how much our desire for perfection controls, haunts and hurts us in this week’s episode.

All my love,

CG xo