This is the first of many posts sharing our thoughts and experiences in working through the White Supremacy Culture article by Tema Okun. In our first discussion (February), the resonant consensus was that we are all perfectionists. We pride ourselves on it. We glory in it. "My greatest weakness? I'm a perfectionist. Ugh, isn't it just awful? Everything has to be just right or I just can't handle it." So then, why is being a perfectionist a Bad Thing?
Perfectionism sets us up for failure. Perfectionism stops us from taking risks. It dissuades us from looking outside ourselves for other ideas and feedback. It rationalizes. It criticizes. It chastises. It's not just a quest for the unattainable; it is a crippling fear of not being enough. Perfectionism tells us that our value is somehow outside of ourselves. It tells us that there is one, single ideal to which we must all strive. When we all work towards this unreachable, unfathomable, uniform ideal, we lose the richness of experience and perspective which makes us actually successful. Perfectionism is one facet of the complex systems we accept as standard, but it's not immobile. What feelings come up when you think about your own perfectionism? How does that feeling resonate in your body? What is an action you can take to break down your own perfectionism? Perfectionism will come up a lot in future topics, so we felt it was the perfect place to start. Now go mess something up today! (We're just kidding. Sort of.)
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