How Do You Break the Cycle of Perfectionism and Procrastination?

You are probably full of the usual rush and energy to make changes in your life with the New Year coming, and you must be thinking about the steps you will take this year.

Note: This article is taken from the blogger Daniel Mangena, in which he tells us about the importance of getting rid of procrastination and perfectionism.

But have we achieved the goals we set for ourselves this time last year? Of course not. I am not speaking from an exaggerated or purely anecdotal point of view, but according to one study, out of 41% of those who make New Year's decisions at the end of the year, only 9% feel successful in sticking with them. Is this because of procrastination or because of the pursuit of perfection?

Does Procrastination and the Pursuit of Perfection Prevent You from Achieving Your Goals?

The failure rate to implement the changes needed in the new year is 91%, and a large part of that is due to how we set our goals. What these studies often point to as a major cause of failure is setting unrealistic goals, but I think this indicates something else, which is that we do not properly associate or align with our goals, which is where perfectionism and procrastination come in.

Perfectionism is just a fear that appears as a mental obstacle, and it is not so much a fear of failure or social ostracism as it is a fear of change. Our subconscious prefers the status quo, as all it knows is that your choices so far have led to your survival. Change is simply the risk of achieving an unknown outcome.

This is the root cause of procrastination and perfectionism. You may claim that you are striving for perfection, but what does that mean? Are you saying that you will not stop working on something until you think it is perfect? Or do you mean that you will not embark on a particular endeavor until you are guaranteed that the outcome will be perfect? If you run into this problem, it means that procrastination and perfectionism are just an excuse, or a manifestation of your deep-rooted subconscious fear of change.

I guess you could replace the word "unrealistic" with "mysterious," and you will have a more accurate assessment of the problem. People often say they want to earn more money, lose more weight, eat more healthy food, etc. But they do not specify what that actually means, and going with that indefinite destination means you cannot set an exact path toward it, and without doing so, you are wandering in an unknown place.

Think of a time when you were performing a task so ordinary that it was barely fixed in your mind, this task could be grocery shopping or doing laundry, as it is something that you do not necessarily every day, but regularly and with a "critical" purpose. If you do not go to the store to buy food, you will not have food, if you do  not have food, you cannot eat, and if you do not eat you will die and that is a very clear goal.

When you step out of the supermarket door, that accelerating chain of catastrophic events never crosses your mind, but rather you make sure that you buy everything on the shopping list. However, there is no doubt that you will come home with everything you need, you were in a mental and energetic connection, albeit without realizing it.

You have achieved your goal mentally, and now your bodily movement is automatic, you probably do not even need to think much about what you are doing while you are walking around the store.

How to Break the Cycle of Perfectionism and Procrastination?

1. Recognizing the Cycle

The first thing you can do to break this cycle of perfectionism and procrastination is to recognize it. Pay attention to what is happening and think about what lies behind your pursuit of perfection. Be honest but kind to yourself, and if you can, try not to be judgmental.

Hard judgment and self-criticism can be just as debilitating as your subconscious fear of change, so try not to make judgments in the first place, and count yourself as neutral of an observer as possible, you are there primarily to observe what is happening.

2. Defining Intentions Correctly

Armed with this knowledge, you will find that your approach to achieving your goals begins to transform naturally, but you also need to learn how to set intentions correctly. If you are one of the aforementioned New Year's decision setters who end up making claims to perfection without taking any action, you should ask yourself, “If I am a perfectionist, why do I keep setting such vague goals?”

Is the perfectionist trying to make "more money" this year and leave it at that sentence? And can someone obsessed with “perfection in all things” aspire to reach the ideal weight and ideal body shape they want, once they have set a goal which is simply to “lose more weight”?

You might honestly think that the possibility of not reaching your specific goal is a reason not to start, but what are you aiming for in the first place?

Let us go back a little to evaluate what we mean by procrastination, since procrastination as defined by researchers is: “A form of self-regulation failure characterized by unreasonable delay in performing tasks despite potentially negative consequences.”

So we have talked about procrastination as if it simply means "doing nothing at all" and it can be over time, but in fact it is delaying doing something for no reason.

If you put off something until tomorrow because you simply do not want to do it today, it may still be procrastination, but if you do it tomorrow, there is no harm in that. The harm lies in constantly putting off something based on irrational or subconscious beliefs that over time mean you will never reach it. This may seem very obvious, but it is important to define exactly what we mean before seeking to make any changes.

Now that we have made it clear, we hope this changes your thinking about "what is procrastination" enough so that you can assess whether or not your procrastination is holding you back, and it should also help you not judge your procrastination.

3. Trying to Get Help and Mentorship

You cannot expand into the void, as you need others to support your journey and provide you with objective feedback, otherwise how are you going to realistically assess whether or not your score is perfect anyway?

Find others who have walked the same path before you and connect with them unless they are notable personalities, you will find that they are more likely to be willing to help and even if it is difficult to reach them, look for interviews with them or look for mentoring that they offered in public previously.

Part of the problem you were having is that you only look at the ideal outcome from your point of view, but by understanding what society considers an ideal outcome of something, you will get a much clearer and more realistic idea of what you want to aim for, from that point you can identify what you are lacking, and then identify the gaps you need to fill.

You should get used to defining your terms better. Think about the style you use, whether when talking to others or through your inner soliloquy, what do you say to yourself?

4. Changing Beliefs

Perfectionism is the tendency to consider anything less than perfect as totally unacceptable. What does this have to do with irrational delays in doing tasks despite potential negative consequences? From an objective point of view, perfection should elicit a desire to continue taking actions far beyond the acceptable outcome, and not unreasonably abstain from taking any of them.

So check yourself the next time you say "I am a perfectionist" as an excuse for not doing something, whether it is for yourself or someone else, you do not mean it but that is okay, you are just afraid of change as we all are.

Do not beat yourself up and try to see things for what they are, and start changing the "belief systems" stories you are working on.