Recovering perfectionist: The 5 steps to avoid overwhelm in business

As a recovering perfectionist, I know how it can feel overwhelming to feel stuck in the weeds, short in time and scattered when it comes to your to-do list and wanting everything to be perfect. As a recovering perfectionist, I am here to share the 5 steps to avoid overwhelm in business.

Do you feel like this? You are running around all day long, juggling, hustling in your business and life, without clear intention.

Maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed with not knowing where to start to implement systems and spreadsheets.

You feel you’re stepping into the powerful slipstream of anxiety, fear, worry, conflict and FOMO.

The 5 steps you can implement NOW to help with perfectionism and overwhelm

Step 1: Connect with your body wisdom

When you’re moving forward with a project, a decision, or embracing a growth opportunity, you may feel overwhelmed or scared to take action.

Connecting with your body is the first step to making sure that it is aligned. This is a practice that I call: a full body YES. If it is not a full body yes, then it is a NO.

How to do it, very simple: close your eyes once you’re in a comfortable position (seated or standing), take a few deep breaths (at least 3), and quiet your mind.

Drop your head in your body (you can bow your head to send the signal) to be fully present.

Then ask yourself: Do I really want to do this?

Connect deeply with your body, and in a few seconds do you feel a sense of moving forward, expansion, lightness in your heart, your chest? Joy? Excitement?

OR do you feel a movement backward, a subtle retreat, a contraction or heaviness in your heart or chest? It can be a subtle energetic whisper of no or yes but.

Your body has this innate wisdom that you need to connect with more.

Really notice the first thing you feel even if it doesn’t seem logical.

As Frederick Nietzsche would say: “There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy”.

Step 2: Stay in your zone of genius

It is important to focus on what you’re good at.

And focus on the small steps aligned with your vision, avoiding the big drama.

For instance:

Automating can look like a workflow in your email sequence. I use Katra and I love how everything can be tracked in it. I am always looking for ways to automate things or make them easier for me!

Delegating can be supported by an SOP (standard operating procedure) for carrying out the task.

Step 3: Do a deep work session

What new tips do we need to embrace? The ability to do deep work.

I was embracing ‘Deep work’ before discovering Cal Newport’s work on this concept. I encourage you to read his book if you haven’t already, I loved it.

Deep work will make you a lot better at what you do. It allows you to achieve more in the smaller amount of time and provides the fulfilment you need (and the fulfilment that comes from being a master of a skill). Most people have lost the ability to go deep and spend their days in the world of social media scrolling and ‘email catch up’ without realising there are better uses of their time.

To put it simply, when we develop a deep work practice, it can be the best choice you make in this very distracting world.

Step 4: Embrace the mantra 'progress over perfection'

You’ve done all the above but you still catch yourself getting stuck into the perfectionism sinkhole. You are afraid to release what you’ve created during your deep work session.

Create the following table to reframe your thoughts between perfectionism and progress:

You will feel self-doubt. It is all about embracing it. This is a sign of progress, of stepping into your growth.

Turn this self doubt into productive actions. Take a deep breath, go for a walk, pull a card, sleep on it, drink a glass of water. Allow yourself to feel it and then ask yourself: what’s the right next step? Use that feedback or insight, what’s the learning?

Step 5: Be patient

"Rome wasn't built in a day" is an adage attesting to the need for time to create great things. It is the usual English translation of a medieval French phrase, “Rome ne fu[t] pas faite toute en un jour, from the collection Li Proverbe au Vilain, published around 1190.

The modern French form is ?Rome ne s'est pas faite en un jour?.

If you keep repeating yourself: 'I’ve been working on my ______ [business, promotion, books, memberships, etc.] for at least ______[24 hours, a week, a month, a season, a year, a decade, etc.] and I’m going nowhere'.

You are not embracing the trust that it will take as long as it does. Honour your progress, your achievements, take time to reflect on what you’ve accomplished.

And also look at successful other entrepreneurs or leaders in your field, how long did it take them.

Cultivating patience is often hard but it is in trusting that the universe has a different timing.