The One Trick You Need To Overcome Your Fear of Perfection

I am a perfectionist. A type A personality. If I can’t do it right, then I’m not going to do it at all. Basically, I have a fear of perfection. 

I know this about myself, and as much as I wish I wasn't this type, I know that it's something I have to work with rather than ignore. Luckily, I've learned one trick that has changed my mindset completely when it comes to my fear of perfection. It's called the 1% Method. I learned about it in my Precision Nutrition course, which is available to my clients, 

The 1% Method

The 1% method tells us that when you're setting a goal, you don't want to have an all-or-nothing attitude. Most people aquait perfection with 100%, so they want to start off at 100% and go at 100% forever. The problem with that thought process is that you can’t actually start off at 100%.

For instance, say you want to run a marathon. If your goal was to go out and run a marathon tomorrow - because that would be what 100% is - but you haven’t run at all in the last year, you would fail miserably. You would fail right out of the gate. 

Instead of starting at 100%, you need to start at 0%. All that means is looking at where you are currently and make that your baseline or starting point. With our marathon example, if you haven't run in a year, 0% is not running at all. 

From your baseline, you want to get 1% better each day. 

You could start by walking around the block: 1%.

Then, you could run a mile: 3%

Then you could aim for 5 miles: 30%.

Then you could run 13 miles: 50%

Little by little, you would work up to 26.2 miles aka 100%. One day at a time you would accomplish your goal. 

Overcoming the fear of perfection

This small shift in my thought process has changed my life completely. I no longer feel like a failure if I can't do something perfectly the first time. Instead, I just try to be 1% better than I was yesterday. If I backslide, then I know it's ok because I can be 1% better than that tomorrow. 

The 1% Method has allowed me to be kinder to myself. I don't expect perfection anymore. I just expect to do better bit by bit. 

If you want to learn more mindset tricks and tips to help you accomplish your goals and you’re ready to dive into your health and fitness goals right now, schedule a consultation with me and I can help you get started today!