Integrative Medicine Podcast

When I was in university, my first-year facilitator handed me a book on perfectionism and told me I should read it. I didn’t understand. How on earth could a student who couldn’t spell, barely paid attention in class, and struggled to care about assignments she didn’t like be a perfectionist? Perfectionism might be showing up in your life differently than the “gets it all perfect all the time” definition we often think of. it's not about having a manicured lawn and perfectly curled hair (although you might do those things too if you’re a perfectionist). Perfectionism is also about how you feel about action - and whether or not you can take action - even if the outcome might be less than perfect.  I didn’t speak up enough, write enough (because I was afraid of my own spelling), or take enough risks in my work because I was afraid of failing at the expectations placed on me. I wasn’t showing up as my full self because I knew she was far from perfect - and yet that inaction was also perfectionism getting in