fear — Blog — Jeremiah Krakowski | Grow Your Coaching or Course business

Perfectionism is one of the most destructive strategies for dealing with life that a business owner can have. This is why it's crucial to practice overcoming perfectionism if we want to succeed in business.

Overcoming perfectionism is one of the most effective ways to turn from a low achiever to a high achiever. People struggling to get ahead and reach their goals often massively succeed when they realize how much perfectionism is hurting themselves - and everyone else.

Perfectionists often have unrealistic expectations for themselves - and everyone else. They don't take action for long periods of time because they're waiting - and worrying - for everything to be perfect. They allow the potential stress from making mistakes to stop them from doing what needs to be done.

This causes perfectionists to be low achievers, even though they often have a deep desire to be high achievers in the future.

Perfectionistic thoughts can completely destroy all the things that make a business, life, and relationships thrive!

Perfectionists tend to think that overthinking and perfectionism will help relieve stress. If everything is done to perfection, I won't have to worry about not reaching my high standards.

Perfectionists often let their anxiety over making mistakes cause them to take longer than they want to finish the projects they start. While they believe this is positive, it has highly damaging effects on their life and business successes. 

Perfectionistic thinking is just one big massive, useless time wasters. 

If you want to succeed in business, the most effective way to do so is to stop overthinking and break free from the negative spirals and constant anxiety that perfectionists tend to experience.

You can overcome perfectionism and still be your authentic self. It's not difficult, but it takes a conscious effort to do so.

What is the root cause of perfectionism?

It's helpful to identify the root causes of both of these behaviors. Our own mental health has a lot to do with perfectionism. If you want to overcome perfectionism, you're going to have to come face to face with the reason it exists in the first place.

Fear of constructive criticism is what drives perfectionism. It becomes difficult to stop negative spirals once that start in our lives. Our own negative self-talk and lack of self-acceptance create the unrealistic high standards for our lives way before we often become aware of what's happening.

The results of perfectionism tend to paralyze even our best effort to start living the life that we want.

The habits of perfectionism came from feelings of inadequacy from unrealistic parental expectations during our teenage years. This caused us to become so focused on avoiding making mistakes that it becomes tough to live in the present moment.

These parental expectations of perfection became our own sense of perfection. They made it harder for us to accept ourselves without worry about doing something wrong.

How can these mental health issues be addressed?

These high standards of perfectionism become one of our best strategies for survival that no matter what would happen, we made a habit that everything had to be perfect and we could never make mistakes.

This gives us a sense of control even when there is control. We tell ourselves, "If I never make a mistake again, I will be safe."

While at first glance, this seems like good advice, it's entirely destructive because mistakes are actually a positive part of living and doing business!

When we can't stop overthinking about situations that haven't happened yet, we often lead ourselves into situations to experience the very thing that we spent so much time worrying about.

Perfectionist thinking leads to more anxiety and worry and is never helpful in any situation.

We have to start to address the issue that is at the root of the practice of perfectionism so that we can begin to find balance in our lives.

Where do the negative thoughts of fear of failure originate?

Fear of failure is an anxiety-related issue that comes from these previous traumatic situations. When we experience a traumatic situation that we didn't sign up for, we stop accepting ourselves as our brain goes into survival mode. We're so deep in focus on surviving that we can't worry about anything else.

It's a coping mechanism. Without addressing the underlying self-esteem issues, it becomes almost impossible to overcome perfectionism.

The pain and anxiety that making mistakes causes us leads to seeking out ways to cope with these feelings on a daily basis. In order to survive, we will make sure everything is perfect, and nothing goes wrong because our brains have convinced us that any mistakes made in our life will certainly lead to death. This way of thinking, while we believe it is helpful, is entirely unhelpful when we become aware of the damage it is doing.

And this is why sometimes we need to directly address these painful events and grieve the past mistakes we've made in order to let them no longer have such power over our lives. We must accept that we are not perfect and practice more helpful ways of thinking.

The more we focus on being perfect, the less control we truly have in our world.

How do we become aware of the problems perfectionists tend to create?

Perfectionism creates more stress in the lives of business owners because it paralyzes them from taking any type of action.

The challenge this creates in business is the inability to perform and reach our goals.

Perfectionists spend too much time thinking about things that haven't happened yet or may never happen. They believe that doing so is helpful to address potential negative situations from happening.

The truth is, this is far from helpful at all.

A focus on never making mistakes often leads to making more mistakes along the way!

It's completely counterintuitive.

This causes them to procrastinate and prevents them from being successful. 

Perfectionism also causes us to live under the rule of comparison. Perfectionists are afraid because they don't want their work judged, criticized, or ripped apart like it was in the past.

Perfectionists not only judge themselves harshly, but they also tend to be judgmental people that judge other people's work too harshly and see where others are lacking while not seeing their own shortcomings. 

There's nothing productive about this way of thinking and living, especially for business owners. None of us truly has the free time or energy to focus on the wasteful, unproductive activity of criticizing ourselves and others (and it truly is the biggest secret time-waster for most business owners).

It doesn't matter how much you try to be perfect; it's impossible to avoid making mistakes on a regular basis!

How does someone start overcoming perfectionism?

To truly reach our goal of overcoming the perfectionism trap, we have to start accepting things just as they are, without needing them to be perfect. We must develop the habit of taking consistent imperfect action.

This is easier said than done and for one big reason.

One challenge with perfectionism is that it is a mental health-related issue. This means the best way to deal with it is to work with a professional. This makes it difficult to just overcome without help, and a proven process, like talk therapy that produces results.

One way that I defeated my own perfectionism was that I decided to sign up for BetterHelp.com

At the time of this writing, I am currently seeing a therapist there. I can write to her and ask questions throughout the week about what I'm dealing with, and we work together through the issues that lead to my own perfectionism and overthinking.

Therapy isn't something to feel embarrassed about. It can have real major success in the lives of those who struggle with perfectionism.

As you can see, I am very familiar with perfectionism myself, but I have been able to overcome it by working with a professional through the root cause of my own issues.

The cost is highly affordable. If you can't afford BetterHelp.com, I recommend 7Cups.com as a completely free resource to talk with people about the root causes of your trauma.

Two incredible books that can help you start living your life more powerfully and breaking free from perfectionism are The Big Leap and How To Do The Work. They deal with the issue from two different perspectives and both are life-changing books.

Listen to one of my top podcasts episodes where I break down the difference between Perfectionism vs. a Spirit of Excellence in detail as it applies to business.

If you would like more help for growing your business and breaking through problems that might be holding you back from business success, check out more videos on my YouTube channel here.

If you have any questions, feel free to direct message me on my social media.

I'm a firm believer in taking things slow and embracing the process to reach our goals. That might surprise you by reading the title of this article.

Taking things slow means having patience for something to play out over the long term instead of striving to force outcomes. I strongly believe in this.

I get sad when I see people justify allowing fear to run their lives under the disguise of "wisdom and prudence."

Wisdom does not mean waiting around, doing absolutely anything, and hoping your situation changes.

It does not mean waiting until you "feel good about things" and "have all the pieces together" to start taking action.

Unfortunately, people often conflate these excuses and reasons to justify their inaction as "wisdom" - ie. waiting for the process.

There's no such thing as waiting for the process to happen...

The process is an active thing.

It happens with movement and motion, forward energy - not sitting around, hoping something changes or happens.

How do I know this? Because I used to be this person...

I used to be someone who was waiting for other people to change around me in order to take action.

I was waiting until I "reached a certain level of success" to take action on my goals.

I was waiting for me to "have all the pieces together" before taking action.

All of these are excuses.

They will destroy your future. They will keep you stuck in your comfort zone.

Taking things slow and "the process" requires you to be swift and quick with your decision-making and action-taking.

Fear disguised as wisdom thinks that "waiting around" is how we take things slow.

Fear of the unknown tries to justify "perfectionism" and "calculated action" as wisdom.

Fear might even tell you that it's just your "analytical personality."

Fear of the unknown will convince you that you are "wise" when you are sitting around waiting for everything to go perfect while overthinking and overanalyzing every step of the way.

Fear might even justify itself as "a spirit of excellence" and "I want to do this really well, so I'm taking longer" when in fact, it's just fear of what is outside of our knowledge and control!

Fear and wisdom can not co-exist with each other.

Being afraid of what is outside of your control or knowledge and using this fear to justify staying stuck is not wisdom! It's not patience.

You have to take action even in the face of uncertainty. You have to step forward even when things are outside of your control.

You may even justify your fear as "planning for success" - while that planning stage is taking you 3-6 months.

Figure out what you don't know swiftly and quickly. Take imperfect, fluidly planned action (which has room to bend the plan) as soon as possible. Bend your plans if new information comes up! (Btw, changing your plans mid-process doesn't make you a failure or unwise). Figure out the rest as you go.

When you can start to master the skill of taking action and figuring things out as you go, you will become more successful.

When we tell ourselves that our waiting around doing nothing is "wisdom," we allow fear to run out lives.

Creativity and abundance also do not co-exist with fear. When we believe there's a finite amount of success available to us and tell ourselves that we must be so cautious and careful about taking action that we stay stuck - we let fear win and rule our lives.

It's time to give up the grip of fear on your decision making. It's time to start to take swift action of your choices. It's time to quickly learn and get the help and advice you need to take your business to the next level.

Sitting around waiting for things to work out for you while doing absolutely nothing and allowing perfectionism to justify why you aren't moving forward can no longer be an option for you.

You have to choose to build your business like a professional!

You have to choose to not let your feelings keep you stuck.

Keep the forward momentum going—this isn't about burning yourself out either.

Consistent, daily forward motion and divorcing fear from your thought process will accelerate your results on a regular basis.

You have to start to be swift at the action taking in the small things in your life. Every day, take swift forward action towards your goals.

When you make this a full time forever habit for yourself, things will start to fall in place for you.

Nerves are a natural part of doing something new and learning new things.

If you've never sold many products or services before, dealing with nerves is a very normal part of that process.

Many times, you can overthink how it will go. You might consider all the ways it could go wrong. You might even be afraid of not selling anything at all.

The fastest way around these nerves is to do it scared and keep doing it!

You might say, "Easier said than done." As long as you believe it's easier said than done, your nerves will get the best of you.

You have to be willing to do things that make you nervous and scared in your business for you to make money.

The only way you will go to the next level is to do things that terrify you.

Fear doesn't control you unless you allow it to.

You will have to put yourself out there and probably look stupid the first few times you sell something! That's entirely, ok!

The more you do it, the better it'll get! But you have to take those steps forward.

If taking those steps forward, reaching out to people (even cold selling to get your feet wet) is too difficult to do, figure out why that is!

What belief do you have that telling you that doing so will hurt or destroy you? What pain are you avoiding feeling? Describe it. Give the feeling a name.

You'll most likely find that these beliefs will go back to some time or experience in your past where you decided never to do that thing that you are scared of doing! It might even be a painful experience.

Does cold reaching out to prospects on Facebook terrify you? Why is that? I'm not saying you have to, but think about that!

Maybe it's because you wouldn't feel comfortable if someone did the same to you. Why is that?

You have to look inside yourself to answer these questions.

None of us wants to be a pushy salesperson. And because of that, we often swing to the other direction of the spectrum.

It's ok to sell if people expect you to sell.

When you deal with nerves while selling, you have to keep selling to get past them.

Someone rejecting you in a sales interaction is not the end of the world. They just weren't a good fit. Let them go!

Keep doing it. Embrace getting rejected as "part of the process" - an essential and necessary part!

The more you do this, the more money you will make. Put it to the test and try it out.

Blog Archive

Podcast Archive

FAVORITE BOOKS

Let’s Connect On Social Media!

Made In Austin, TX

IMPORTANT: Earnings and Legal Disclaimers

Earnings and income representations made by Jeremiah Krakowski, the Wealthy Coach Academy are aspirational statements only of your earnings potential. The success of Jeremiah Krakowski, case studies, testimonials and other examples used are exceptional, non-typical results and are not intended to be and are not a guarantee that you or others will achieve the same results. Individual results will always vary and yours will depend entirely on your individual capacity, work ethic, business skills and experience, level of motivation, diligence in applying the Jeremiah Krakowsi trainings, the economy, the normal and unforeseen risks of doing business, and other factors.

The Wealthy Coach Academy, Jeremiah Krakowski's trainings, and Jeremiah Krakowski individually, are not responsible for your actions. You are solely responsible for your own moves and decisions and the evaluation and use of our products and services should be based on your own due diligence. You agree that the Jeremiah Krakowski and his companies are not liable to you in any way for your results in using our products and services. See our Terms & Conditions for our full disclaimer of liability and other restrictions.

The Wealthy Coach Academy, Jeremiah Krakowski's trainings, and Jeremiah Krakowski personally, may receive compensation for products and services they recommend to you. Jeremiah Krakowski personally uses a recommended resource unless it states otherwise. If you do not want the Jeremiah Krakowski or Conduit CMS to be compensated for a recommendation, then we advise that you search online for the item through a non-affiliate link.

Mailing Address: 6001 W Parmer Lane, Ste 370-717, Austin, TX 78727

Support Phone: (512) 596-1698