The All or Nothing Trap

Newsletter #15

One of the topics I’ve been wanting to cover for a while now is the notorious problems to do with the “All or Nothing” mindset. Also known as a core thinking error if you’ve done some CBT in the past.

If I’m honest, I’ve been guilty of riding around this cycle most of my life as a self proclaimed perfectionist. Awareness alone hasn’t been enough to break the cycle for me, but it is possible to make some serious changes once you are aware of the pattern and willing to focus on progress over perfection.

Awareness isn't always enough to break the cycle

The reason I want to talk about it with you today? Because 6 days into the new year and I can guarantee that there are already going to be a ton of people out there feeling frustrated, disillusioned and guilty that there well intended resolutions aren’t going perfectly to plan.

I’m here to remind you that the goal is never about perfection. If you want to make some changes that’s fab, you have 365 opportunities available to you this year to implement something. Even if you practice a new habit 200 times this year that’s a hell of a lot better than doing it 5 times and giving up because you missed a day and are now a self declared “failure”.

If your goal was to quit smoking and you haven’t... start by having 1 less per day if that’s all you can manage. That’s 365 less cigarettes by the end of the year & that is definitely not nothing. If you wanted to do 30 minutes of exercise, have a crack at 5 minutes with full permission to stop after that time of you’re not feeling it. Chances are that after 5 minutes, you might want to do more anyway. Worse case scenario doing 1,825 minutes of exercise is so much better for your overall health than no exercise.

Progress is always better than perfection

It doesn’t matter what the goal is. You can apply this to anything. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. What does 1% of progress towards your goal look like? Start there.

So my question to you is to ask yourself, "What goals are you working on now? What does your 1% look like?"

Have a great week,

Bec x