Episode 33: Let Go of Perfectionism Without Lowering Your Standards
- Tina Boogren
- Apr 19
- 6 min read
Description: If you're someone who takes pride in doing things well but feels exhausted by the pressure to get everything exactly right, this episode is for you. Dr. Tina Boogren explores how perfectionism quietly slows us down and shares one simple invitation to create more space and momentum in your life.
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to Everyday Wellness with Dr. Tina H. Boogren. I am your host, Dr. Tina Boogren, and I am so happy you are here. Thank you for being here. Thank you for just taking a little bit of time out of your day to listen to these invitations and put them into practice into your own life. I'm just cheering so hard for you.
Why don't we go ahead and take that nice grounding breath that we typically do to kind of get ourselves to this space right now. Whether you are on a walk or driving or sitting and listening, go ahead and do a nice, long, deep breath. So inhale through your nose and do a really long exhale. Remember, that is the type of breath that can calm our nervous system. So go ahead and do that now. Good. I hope you just kind of feel that in your whole body, just that release.
So this week's invitation is to release perfection. Let me say that again. This week's invitation is to release, let go of, perfection. It's going to be a really simple invitation. It sounds small. That's what all of these invitations are, but really they have so much potential behind them. So we're going to release perfection.
So this isn't about, we're not going to stop caring, we're not just doing things kind of halfway, we're not lowering our standards. Really what we're doing is we're releasing the pressure to get something exactly right. Because if you are anything like me, and I have a feeling you might be, you have spent a lot of your life being someone who does things well. We take pride in that and that's a great thing, right? We are, we are people who show up. We are people who care deeply about doing right by the people around us and that is a beautiful, wonderful thing. But what we know is that that can turn into pressure, this pressure that kind of sneaks up on us that we don't even realize it's there.
It's that pressure to get everything just exactly right, to not miss anything, not drop any of the balls that we have in the air. It's that pressure to make sure everything that we put out into the world is polished and thoughtful and thorough and complete. And you know what? That can be exhausting. It can be really exhausting to live in that constant loop of, let me just check it one more time, or let me just make one more tweak, or I'm just going to take one more pass at this before I send it. And if we're being really honest here, when we get into that loop, which I get into so often, that's what can keep us stuck. So what happens is we, we don't send the email, we don't get the to-do lists done, we don't make that decision. We don't move forward because we get in our head about feeling like it's not ready yet, or it's not right, or it's not perfect. And so it stays on our to-do list and it stays in our inbox, and it kind of makes that just never ending loop in our mind that can feel so frustrating.
So this week we're going to experiment with something different. What I want you to do is, I want you to choose one thing, just one, and I want you to let that thing be done without it being perfect. So maybe it is an email that you send without rereading it five or 500 times. Maybe it's a task that you complete without overthinking every single detail. Maybe it's a decision that you make without needing a hundred percent certainty in talking to 10 different people to get their opinion on it.
Just choose one thing. And as you do it, I want you to notice what comes up. Because here's where it starts to get interesting. You might feel a little bit of discomfort. You might have a little voice in your head that says, “Wait, wait, wait. Shouldn't we check that again?” Or “What if it's not good enough?” And that voice has probably been with you for a long time. It's been with me for a long time, and, and that voice is actually trying to help us. It's trying to keep us safe. It's trying to make sure that we're successful. It's trying to keep us from making mistakes, but that voice isn't always telling us the truth.
Because here's what can also be true, is that things can be done well without being done perfect. We can be thoughtful without overthinking. We can be responsible without carrying everything for everyone. And maybe, and this might be the most important thing, we can keep moving forward without having everything figured out. There is a different kind of energy that opens up when we release perfection. There's more space. We feel more at ease. We actually get more momentum because we're carrying a lot already. You've got full days, full roles, full hearts, full families, full houses, full offices, all of it, full classrooms, and we don't need this like perfection ideal layered on top of all that. What we actually need is a little bit of room to breathe.
So let me ask you this, where is perfection quietly slowing you down right now? Is it in something small? So maybe an email, a task, a conversation, or is it maybe in something bigger? A decision you've been sitting on, an idea you haven't shared yet, um, a step you haven't taken. So what would it look like to move forward just a little without needing it to be absolutely perfect?
Hopefully there's a freedom in that. That freedom from extra pressure, from extra weight, from this belief we get in our head that something has to be flawless in order for it to be valuable, because we know it doesn't, it doesn't. So here's your invitation for this week. I want you to choose one thing, and I want you to let it be done. I want you to let it be enough. Let yourself move forward, and then I want you to notice, what do you feel? What shifts in your body? What shifts in your energy? What opens up when you're no longer aiming for perfection? And my hope is. That we're going to find a little bit more space, a little more ease, maybe even a little bit more capacity for the things that matter to us. And that's what I want us to really think about and notice. We're not doing less just to do less. What we're doing is we're creating space so we can keep showing up in a way that actually feels sustainable. So we can keep carrying what matters without feeling like we have to carry it perfectly.
That's what I want us to play with this week. I'm going to do the same thing. I'm going to be right beside you and I'm going to have those Facebook prompts for the whole week that help remind us of this and nudges towards, hmm, easing up on ourselves a little bit, letting go of perfection. Make it a great week, you guys. I'm cheering so hard for you.
As always, we're so grateful to Adrienne, to Solution Tree, to Marzano Resources and to you this badass Everyday Wellness squad. If this is feeling like a safe place, uh, a kind, secure place where you're reminded of some things to try or inspired to try some new things. I'd love if you'd share this podcast with others. It helps get the word out, maybe leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. It just kind of helps in this hard world we're living in right now to help us widen our, our circle, our horseshoe right, and invite others to join us in this positive place. I would really, that would mean a lot to me. Thank you so much you guys. Make it a great week. I love you.
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