“Don’t take yourself so seriously.” God, if I had a penny for every time that I’ve heard that from my loving boyfriend… I hate to admit it, but he’s right.
Are you like me? (if you are, I’m so sorry):
- Do you rarely do things solely because you find joy in them?
- Do you regularly experience guilt about not following your very strict plan?
- Are you sometimes judgemental towards others who are a little freer than you (jealousy may be at the root of this one)?
Guilty as charged, and let me tell you something: it doesn’t equate with a happy life. Despite the topic of this blog, I totally struggle with opening myself up around other people. Â Laughing? I do it very rarely. Most days you can find me parked in front of my computer with a furrowed brow and a determined stare. Goals, dreams, and ambitions are always at the forefront of my mind, and I feel guilty when I am doing anything other than working towards these ends. So here’s the question, “what’s the point?” Will I ever reach an end? Will you ever get to that point when you can give yourself permission to laugh?
– will I/you ever have a perfect enough body?
– will I/you ever have a perfect enough job?
– will I/you ever be completely satisfied with where my/your life is right now?
– will I/you ever be satisfied and happy in the present?
I’m a little bit afraid that the answer might be no.
So then what is a perfectionist to do?
I have written more than my fair share of blog posts on this topic, but nothing seems to be working. Regardless of what I’ve told myself, I consistently choose guilt over abundance. I routinely choose work over play. I unashamedly choose judgement over acceptance. I want to pull my hair out because although I know that I NEED to change, the HOW seems to consistently escape me. I read self-help book after self-help book, but all this practice does is create MORE work and MORE confusion.
Despite this, I think I may have:
3 tips/tricks to help you to stay productive, while also giving yourself permission to play and experience lifeÂ
1. Let’s start with an affirmation. “My self-worth is not related to the amount of work I accomplish in a day. I am a worthwhile person, and I am deserving of success”
2. When planning your day, plan ONLY as much as you can REASONABLY accomplish in a day. This way when you do actually get everything you planned to done, you can celebrate a little bit.
3. When you “fail” in some way, don’t berate yourself. Acknowledge the mistake or misstep and then move on. Living in the present will rectify any self-debasing and self-sabotaging behaviour that results from these little mistakes.
4. Do something that makes you laugh (belly laugh) every single day.
When it comes to be being a workaholic, I’m probably the last person in the world who should be giving advice – but my intuition tells me that following these tips would probably make a difference. I’m going to give it a try. We’ll see what happens.
I’m wishing you the best of luck…
And I like the advice, it’s very practical and easily applicable – if you’re not a workaholic 😉
Haha, yeah. I think us workaholics could try to do some of those things too though. Might be just a little bit harder. I’m going to try. Especially the laughing one. God, I don’t laugh enough.
I think I need a bit of what you have and you need a bit of what I have, swapsies? 😉
Yes please. I would love a little bit of your humour, so throw some my way. Loved your blog post about your obviously man-designed underwear. You definitely know how to laugh at yourself, and I was laughing right along with you.
Well I could definitely use some of your drive, ambition and commitment my dear, so you’re on! x
[…] to get blown away. I also started thinking a lot about the steps I’d written in my last blog post about overcoming workaholism. I just checked the dates, and realized I published this on Saturday, so I guess the dates all add […]