(And how I overcame it with my Human Design)

I used to struggle with perfectionism – it held me back in business for years. 

Things I produced were never good enough.

I wanted to be seen as “professional”.

But all it did was stop me from getting things done. I wouldn’t start projects because I “needed to know more before I started” I needed “to feel comfortable” doing something, I was worried about how I would look and sound.

And all this completely sabotaged any action! How could I move forward when I was holding myself back? And in holding myself back I was hiding the most important aspect of my existence – I was keeping my message hidden away.

Want to know the one thing that helped me let go of perfectionism, lean into being a manifesting generator (and stop my ADHD meds)?

I allowed my spirit guides and my intuition to flow through me. 

When I work from this place I feel that I am bringing forth the message that spirit wants me to deliver to you who are listening.

For example, when I make my podcast episodes, I start with a general framework of what I want to say, and from there, I allow spirit and my guides to take over. This way things evolve organically without me trying to steer and force the ship and I leave space for spirit’s message to come through.

At the beginning of my podcasting journey, I sounded rough, and I still um and ahh, but that’s okay – I get it done, I trust in my guidance, and that allows me to let go of perfectionism and turn up anyway.

One thing that helps me in this process is that I don’t go back and listen to the whole show after it’s made! And in doing it this way I’m often pleasantly surprised at the soundbites that my wonderful assistant comes up with as takeaways from each episode. 

It truly is incredible what flows when we take resistance out of the way.

And now, a year into the Answer Your Unique Calling podcast, I am proud to say that I’ve recorded 26 episodes, I’ve overcome the weight of perfectionism, and I’ve allowed spirit a seat at the table to spread her message. 

Another thing that helped me to overcome perfectionism in my business was leaning into my Human Design, as a manifesting generator.

You see, I have a tremendous ability to multitask and accomplish a lot of things in a short amount of time. I’m the one who has multiple interests, and hobbies and will be found doing several things at once. And for most of my life, I saw this as a negative, as a defect, as something wrong with me that needed to be fixed. 

“Why do I start seven things and only finish four?”

So for a while, I took ADD/ADHD type medication in the hope of learning how to focus on one thing at a time, and how to make sure I got that one thing completed. And the meds did help me to focus a little more, but here’s the thing, I lost a lot of my creativity, and it wasn’t till years later, that Human Design taught me that this way of operating and multitasking is not just “okay” it’s how I’m designed to be.

Finally, I had permission to lean into my natural way of being and surrender to my design. I learned that as a manifesting generator I don’t need to focus. I can hold a lot of things in my mind at the same time, I can hold my attention on multiple tasks simultaneously. I don’t necessarily need to force myself to focus on one thing at a time, and I don’t always need to finish things.

Manifesting generators start way more things than we finish. There’s this gap that things kind of fall through between the initial sacral response to something, the “aha” that says, yes, I want to do this, and actually putting the energy into moving the project forward. Sometimes things fall in that gap and don’t get finished, and that’s okay.

Learning about my design has revolutionized the way I run my business and how I see myself. I’ve learned that there’s a great deal of energy in my design and that I can use that energy to accomplish a lot in a single day when I decide to put my mind to it. When I decide to not get stuck and bogged down by perfectionism.

To hear more about what I learned in my first year of running a spiritual business listen to the full podcast episode here.

I’d love to hear from you – how has perfectionism held you back in business?