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<\/p>\nIn school, perfectionism is often rewarded, but in life, it can hold you back.<\/p>\n
Perfectionism served me well in the 1980\u2019s American public school system. I checked and double-checked my answers on tests so I didn\u2019t make careless errors. I turned in highly polished work and received bonus points for good presentation (usually by adding a colorful picture). My handwriting was neat and I liked working alone to solve problems with straightforward answers.<\/p>\n
Then, in high school, I started precalculus and took a baseline math assessment. I bombed the test. I didn\u2019t have the pre-requisite skills for the class. Somehow I\u2019d managed to do well on tests in the foundational classes, but I\u2019d forgotten the equations I\u2019d memorized and lacked a true understanding of the concepts.<\/p>\n
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Failure is not a weakness. It shows real strength of character to learn from your mistakes and keep going. Don\u2019t give up. Mistakes only show us what we still need to learn.<\/p>\n
You will have to move beyond many things you\u2019ve learned in school. There is not always one right answer to a problem. There are many directions you can go. Learn to view these choices as exciting. Get clear on your values and they will lead you the right way.<\/p>\n
Teaching yourself to adopt a growth mindset will help you rebound when times get tough. If you believe your brain can grow, you behave differently.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecent advances in neuroscience<\/a>\u00a0have shown us that the brain is far more malleable than we ever knew. Research on\u00a0brain plasticity<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0has shown how connectivity between neurons can change with experience. With practice, neural networks grow new connections, strengthen existing ones, and build insulation that speeds transmission of impulses.\u201d<\/p>\n This is good news. It shows that traits like intelligence are not fixed. We can improve and change with practice.<\/p>\n Now that we know perfectionism is holding us back and we have some strategies to help us let go of it, what next?<\/p>\n Get out there and enjoy your swim. You don\u2019t need a perfect beach body to have fun in the water. Submit your story to a writing competition or share it in a critique group. You can\u2019t improve it by keeping it hidden in a folder on your laptop. Pitch a project idea to your boss. What have you got to lose? If he\/she doesn\u2019t like it, figure out why and improve it. Or, come up with another idea.<\/p>\n I\u2019d love to see what you do now that you\u2019ve cast off your perfectionist anchor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In school, perfectionism is often rewarded, but in life, it can hold you back. Perfectionism served me well in the 1980\u2019s American public school system. I checked and double-checked my answers on tests so I didn\u2019t make careless errors. I turned in highly polished work and received bonus points for good presentation (usually by adding a colorful picture). My handwriting was neat and I liked working alone to solve problems with straightforward answers. Then, in high school, I started precalculus and took a baseline math assessment. I bombed the test. I didn\u2019t have the pre-requisite skills for the class. Somehow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[23,25],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themeproducers.com\/suga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themeproducers.com\/suga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themeproducers.com\/suga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themeproducers.com\/suga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themeproducers.com\/suga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/themeproducers.com\/suga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1047,"href":"https:\/\/themeproducers.com\/suga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions\/1047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themeproducers.com\/suga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themeproducers.com\/suga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themeproducers.com\/suga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themeproducers.com\/suga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What Next?<\/strong><\/h2>\n