Tweet

Perfectionism... something to be proud of: 5 reasons if you are an entrepreneur

Guest post by: Monique MacKinnon

Article Overview: Is there really a bright side to perfectionism? Absolutely! These 5 success-boosting secrets can give you, the entrepreneur, a competitive edge and something to not be shameful of for once in your life. How refreshing!

Perfectionism... something to be proud of: 5 reasons if you are an entrepreneur

One of the comments I hear often, especially from female clients, is: “I am my own worst enemy-critic.” Not surprisingly, many claim to be perfectionists. As we all know, anything brought to its extreme can be unhealthy, and it is no different with perfectionism. This article is dedicated to all of you who tend to be hard-on-yourself perfectionists, and deals with how perfectionism can be either helpful or harmful. Here are:

Top 5 Ways Entrepreneurial Perfectionists Block Success

1. Fear of taking risks: Being cautious -- for the purpose of avoiding criticism -- may prevent you from sharing your creative ideas with others, progressing, and becoming successful.
2. “Losing the forest for the trees”: Avoidance behaviors are very time-consuming and prevent you from completing tasks, and committing to yourself and others. Examples include: getting something just “right” - usually to avoid mistakes and public humiliation - and getting organized and re-organized until you are comfortable.
3. Sabotaging yourself: Having unrealistic expectations -- including unreasonable deadlines and unmanageable workloads -- can lead to failure.
4. Difficulty delegating: It can keep you from being effective. For instance, when you choose to not delegate tasks -- i.e. being resourceful and benefiting from others’ help -- because you are concerned that the quality of work performed by others will be inadequate, you get stuck with lots of work, which takes a lot of time.
5. Conflict: Believing that there is only one right way of doing a job can cause tension, disagreements, and conflicts

As an entrepreneur, here are 5 ways you can boost your chances of being successful -- in your business, relationships, and life.

Top 5 Ways Entrepreneurial Perfectionists Boost Success



Nurture yourself and place yourself in nurturing environments. To get started, follow the suggestions that you find the most applicable and valuable to you.

1. Develop functional boundaries. Specifically, respect your and others’ opinions, rights, and preferences.
2. Become aware of when you may be judging yourself and others, or fearful of rejection or failure. This will make it easier for you to separate your feelings from the content of your problems.
3. Forgive yourself and others for mistakes made. This will allow you to learn and grow beyond your current comfort zone, and attract more of what you want out of life.
4. Give yourself and others kindness, tenderness and understanding during stressful times. Also allow yourself to receive these gifts, and to communicate openly and honestly with others. For instance, if you are making a presentation and you are both nervous and excited, you can certainly mention this to the audience if you like. Doing this will show others that you are human and thereby make you more approachable than if you “acted” perfect.
5. Have fun anywhere, anytime, …even though you or a situation may not feel perfect. Which one of the following statements describes you the most: “I avoid pain and negativity,” or “I embrace pleasure and positivism?” If it’s negativity, begin to focus more on the positives in your life, by expressing every day what you are thankful for.

Related Articles
  3 Essential Video Tips For Female Entrepreneurs
  You Don't Have to Be Perfect! (Hear that, You Crazy Perfectionist?!)
  Real Estate Marketing Strategies: 7 Ways "Perfectionism" Stops You from Success
  The Dilemma of Perfectionism
  "If I'm Perfect, No One Will Reject Me" - Healing Perfectionism
  How to Determine Your Future Success
  Action, Action and More Action Builds Self Confidence and Creates Success
  Who Is Your Proud Family?
  Perfectionism Can it be a good thing
  Seven Deadly Workplace Sins. First Up: Pride
  Characteristics of the entrepreneurs
  Being Your Best
  The Secrets of "Serious Entrepreneurship"
  Successful Entrepreneurs Love Pizza French Fries and Apple Pie
  YCDABSOYA
  Three Primary Reasons To Become An Entrepreneur
  Why become an entrepreneur?
  The benefits of learning what successful entrepreneurs do
  Enjoying the Journey to Financial Freedom
  Knowing The Entrepreneur Definition Will Help You Become A Successful Entrepreneur

Article Tags: competitive edge, entrepreneurial success, perfectionism, selfsabotage
Referred by: http://www.prostrategies.com



Related Forum Posts
Re: Poll: Entrepreneur or Small Business Owner? - I voted for entrepreneur for the same reasons as Michelle.
New, young entrepreneur - Hello all. I partially own a very small production company where I live and help to run another production company where I live. We're all young, with the exception of about two or three others, and we've done pretty well for ourselves. I'm proud to say that by the end of this week, we will be a bonefide LLC after all of our hard work. I never dreamed that I would be an entrepreneur, but here I sit!
Re: PageRank Update - did your site change? - Right on, Carol! My page rank hasn't changed (that I know of), but my backlinks and traffic have picked up since getting involved in the EvanCarmichael.com forums, just like yours. Evan's entrepreneur community is definitely a good place to be hanging around ... for many reasons! GT :-]
Re: New, young entrepreneur - [quote="H20ismyLife":d8kjj5hg]Hello all. I partially own a very small production company where I live and help to run another production company where I live. We're all young, with the exception of about two or three others, and we've done pretty well for ourselves. I'm proud to say that by the end of this week, we will be a bonefide LLC after all of our hard work. I never dreamed that I would be an entrepreneur, but here I sit![/quote:d8kjj5hg] Welcome H20ismyLife, I'm glad you decided to join us! Can you tell us a little about your business background and what your production company does?
KeywordBox.com - Thanks theFranchiseMarket - like bennyboy7, I'm a user of Google's tool (after all, if you're optimizing for Google, why not use their own database?) I put in the keyword "entrepreneur" into keywordbox and got the following top 12 results [quote:13n1aucz]Count Keyword us 51255 entrepreneur 7139 entrepreneur magazine 2569 famous entrepreneur 2441 business and entrepreneur 2256 change child educate entrepreneur leaving microsoft odyssey world world 2243 successful entrepreneur 1918 social entrepreneur 1574 young entrepreneur 1536 book book e entrepreneur from infopreneur information make money product 1504 woman entrepreneur 1358 filipino entrepreneur 1340 book book else entrepreneur free free free get money money money rich somebody wont working[/quote:13n1aucz] It seems strange to me that "change child educate entrepreneur leaving microsoft odyssey world world" would get 2256 searches and would outrank successful entrepreneur and young entrepreneur. Further down the list are other strange keyword combinations. Have you had a better experience using the tool?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

What is an Adaptive Organization

Intro to Search Engine Optimization

Why We MUST Reinvent The Wheel

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.