TIP OF THE WEEK

ACCEPT YOURSELF JUST AS YOU ARE            

It’s great to have high self-expectations and to go for our goals but just make sure that you are not showing perfectionist tendencies. There is a thin line between reaching for our best and having unrealistic expectations of what we can achieve.

Perfectionists are always unhappy because they can never meet their own exacting standards; whatever they do is never quite ‘good enough’ and so they are not able to recognise success. If we can only settle for perfection then we can never actually complete a project or be satisfied with a relationship or even enjoy day-to-day living.

Perfectionists are also very critical of the seeming ‘imperfections’ of others and so they find it hard to make and keep friends. If you ever find yourself striving for the absolute and the utterly impossible just stop and remind yourself that you are only human.

• If you can never get that piece of work ‘just right’ you will never finish it. Give yourself a realistic deadline and give it your best shot; this is the best that you can do and it is enough.
  
• If you are struggling with confidence issues then you will never be satisfied with how you are. Stop comparing yourself with an unrealistic idealistic self-image and begin to love who you really are. None of us is perfect.
  
• Don’t expect others to never make mistakes; they will and so will you. Give them and yourself a break and life will become a much more light-hearted affair.