Episode 5: Perfectionism
Perfectionism )
1. Are you a secret perfectionist?
2. Maybe! Because we all come by it honestly
3. Patients trust us with their lives. And honestly, sometimes, the situations are actual life and death, not exaggerated
How does this relate to burnout?
1. SO. MUCH. PRESSURE!
2. Not to mention that, to get into these fields, you have to work pretty hard, get good grades, study, and have a touch of perfectionism to be selected into those programs. Then there’s more studying, board and licensing exams, malpractice insurance, and more. Is it getting hot in here?!?
What can you do about it?
1. First thing is knowing that perfectionism doesn’t exist. Easier said than done, but hear me out
1. Oxford dictionary states: perfection is “the condition, state, or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws [https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=e51d7e6dd0626cd3&channel=ftr&sxsrf=ACQVn0_aZR2PE4Ww5OADUFtvBUhxF-E-2g:1714182115763&q=flaws&si=AKbGX_qy882wphGEk_Dxwohm5OanXVMHnTOG4CPsAOnfOYZ6Z7NhNn_els4WhYr9c31PhQFLxvNW3P5ZpA6VJoatwegxO_6vdw%3D%3D&expnd=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjMktyAouGFAxUKH0QIHWdcB0UQyecJegQIIRAO] or defects.’
2. Who decides what is a flaw or defect? YOU DO. A good example is starting an IV. There are million different ways to do it, and there’s no right way.
3. Medicine and nursing is a lot of gray, not so much black and white stuff
4. What ends up happening is we chase this standard that is a moving target (much like the arrival fallacy) and we never achieve it.
5. So we beat ourselves up which feels awful. And then we exhaust ourselves by trying harder. This is the connection between perfectionism and burnout.
6. Drives the lack of personal achievement dimension of burnout
2. Second step: reframe
1. Remind yourself the perfect outcome doesn’t exist
2. Focus on the controllables (there will be an episode about this later)
3. Third step: Look for your wins
1. My new question is: did I really do my best here? For this patient? With this family? For my coworkers? If the answer is yes, then we’re good.
4. Conclusion
1. As we close this episode, I want to recap the main takeaways from this episode
2. Perfect doesn’t exist
3. Perfectionism isn’t the same thing as doing your best
4. The quest for perfectionism drives burnout
5. To fix it, release the perfectionism and focus on you doing your best, no matter what
This sounds really simple, and it is. And the implementation is the part where many people get stuck.
I wanted to share that I’ll be hosting a webinar on Monday June 17, 2024 to talk about some mindset shifts to help you implement the stuff we talked about here. If you want to sign up, check out https://revivingwellness.myflodesk.com/selfcarelivelesson. It’s also in the show notes or you can find it linked in my IG page as well
Until the next time, hang in there. You’ve got this thing.
