This is the key when dealing with your own perfectionism: exercising the lost art of discernment. Treating perfectionism like a special sauce and being discerning about when you apply it. It doesn't have to be like the kid going through the phase where they put tomato ketchup on everything. There are some things you just don't need to put ketchup on, and they have not yet figured out how to be discerning.
Perfectionism - think of it like mental ketchup. The perfect complement to some life situations, and a completely unnecessary addition to others.
Look at the risk and reward, then discern how much of your perfectionist special sauce needs applying. Don't assume you need to apply it liberally to everything by default.
Sometimes good enough really is good enough.
Applying perfectionism as your modus operandi, blanket strategy across all situations presented to you in life, is one of the fastest routes to feeling stressed, overwhelmed, irritable and burned-out. It's like a one-way ticket to Overwhelmsville.
And it's very little fun to live there. Sure, it's perfectly neat and organised, but it's not very fun, and the To Do list is never-ending. Much of the time "Done" really is better than "Perfect".
As a general rule the world doesn't reward perfectionists - it rewards people who get stuff done. Most of the time, Done will trump Perfect. That way you fast-track out of overwhelm, get more done and still get to maximise that quality when it really counts.
Save your perfect ketchup for the times it really counts.
