Good Enough is Perfect

Would you consider yourself a perfectionist?

It's pretty common for ADHDers to fall into that category.

Many different sources say that perfectionism for someone with ADHD usually comes from a subconscious need to overcompensate after experiencing previous struggles or perceived failures, often a result of symptoms of ADHD. They are trying to make up for the times they didn't feel their ‘good’ was ‘enough’.

This often leads to working even harder to try to attain perfection, or it may go the other way and cause more procrastination and avoidance.

Overworking usually leads to burnout and other related consequences while procrastination and avoidance can lead to negative outcomes like poor performance reviews, disappointing others and yourself, loss of income and plenty more things no one intentionally wants to experience.

Leave the past in the past

In an effort to combat some of the unwanted side effects of perfectionism, it helps to try and stay present and mindful, instead of dwelling on past failures.

Allowing yourself to revisit past experiences where you don't feel like you did your best, all in an effort to fuel yourself to be 'better', is not healthy long term.

It can certainly be upsetting to feel like you let someone down or that you didn't get where you wanted to go, but these events don't define who you are.

You are not broken.

You don't need to be fixed.

Working yourself to exhaustion or trying to avoid things altogether won't erase what happened before.

The best thing we can do is acknowledge that it happened, recognize where things may have gone wrong and decide to try to make a change or do things differently in the future. Then, it's time to let go of those past moments and move forward.

Perfectionism warps perception

When you look at something you have done, with the eye of a perfectionist, you will always find something wrong—something in need of fixing. There will never be a time when it is 'finished'.

Perfect is a myth. Perfect is an ideal that we can strive for, but we will never reach it.

It’s a lot like looking into one of those wavy funhouse mirrors. You can keep shifting here and there, trying to make teeny tiny adjustments, always thinking if you hold yourself in just the right way, you can un-distort the image. Unfortunately, the funhouse will close before you will ever be able to achieve such an unrealistic expectation.

Plus, if you were could get yourself to look at your work like someone else would see it, you might realize that the things you are worrying about not being perfect—no one else sees them but you.

Ultimately, 'perfect' is the number one enemy of 'done'.

If we stand back and look through a 'good enough' lens instead of the lens that needs perfection, we might just see that we were finished a long time ago.

It's time to stop worrying about 'perfect' and start striving for 'good enough'—and move on to what’s next.

Thank you for your time and attention,

-Nikki