Let’s Talk About… PERFECTIONISTS. (Takes one to know one!)

Ah, perfectionism. It’s a tricky little wolf in sheep’s clothing. Masquerading around as being productive, doing things right, having high standards. And often, in reality, blocking us from making progress and getting things done. A subtle form of procrastination and/or self-criticism. Not good.

I am a recovering perfectionist for sure. Is anyone with me?? I think a lot of it comes from childhood for most of us. Something always pushing us to do better, be better, be good, make others happy. We likely got rewarded for it in childhood and those young associations are powerful and still working deep in our subconscious.

For me, it shows up in the never ending to-do list, doing things for everyone else, and rarely letting what I truly want for myself or my own self-care to make the list. I have gotten much better with this over the years. I know when I am tapped out and need some quiet time to myself for meditation, journaling, getting outside in the fresh air, or hanging out on the couch with the kitties watching trash TV if I am really fried.

Sometimes it shows up in how much time I spend perfecting one newsletter that goes out to all of you subscribers. I took a great creative writing class specifically about newsletters that encouraged me to work toward writing each weekly newsletter in about 1 hour. I am aiming for that today.

I have had some feedback that these are too long anyways. tl;dr as the kids of today say. (Too Long; Didn’t Read if you need a translation and didn’t know that acronym) I also get feedback that people LOVE my stories and keep them coming.

So, in honor of truly recovering from perfectionism, I will keep this week’s message shorter and send a mix of newsletters. Detailed fun stories in some and getting to the point of quick Health & Mindset tips in others. You can always reply and let me know what you like the most and what helps you the most.

This Week’s Shot of MINDSET

Last month, I signed up for Gabby Bernstein’s Manifesting Challenge. I have heard of Gabby, saw her on Oprah a looooonnnnggg time ago, but have never bought any books or any of her offers. Somehow the good ole Facebook algorithm caught me with a well-timed ad as it knew I was interested in Body-Mind-Spirit and all things spiritual and mindset.

One of the first things I did was a brief little Energy of Attraction Meditation and this phrase hit me like a lightning bolt:

I trust that the Universe will do for me what I cannot do for myself.

Or, the version that resonates most for me and immediately helps me feel supported and less stressed about so many things:

I trust that God will do for me what I cannot do for myself.

I have kept that phrase with me as my 2025 mantra and found it SO HELPFUL when I get stressed out in old Jennifer perfectionist mode of doing more and more and more. I pause and repeat this little mantra. In my mind and in my body, I instantly relax and just sort of turn it over to God or the Universe. It’s not my problem to stress about anymore. “God’s got this” I remind myself.

This allows me to get back to feeling good, opening my heart, feeling love, letting life flow more. I know this is the space where all good things flow into my life when I am in the space of calm, relaxed, having fun, smiling, and just enjoying life.

This Week’s Shot of HEALTH

I tell my health coaching clients all the time to focus on PROGRESS NOT PERFECTION. It’s really the only way to sustainably reach health goals. Dropping the perfection when it comes to your body, your health goals, your diet, and exercise will… paradoxically allow you to reach your goals more quickly.

I firmly believe that diet is about 90% of the equation when it comes to reaching health goals. Many of us get caught up in restriction when it comes to following a diet vs. the broader sense of having a healthy diet. Unfortunately, this often leads to rebound eating because our bodies need calories, carbs, glucose for the brain. Too much fasting or restricting often leads to rebound eating or binge eating. It is instinctual for our bodies to want to feast on rich, caloric food when its available and store it all away for times of famine. Nowadays this is mostly self-imposed famine.

This week I encourage everyone to drop the perfectionism with diet. Be kind to your body and reassure it that you will nourish it with health promoting foods when you are truly hungry. Loving our bodies also includes stopping at full and satisfied, but knowing you can eat again every single time you are hungry.

The body needs to learn this trust again, especially if we have a history of pushing it into restrict-binge cycles. I am guilty of this from a long history of dieting. I no longer do this to myself. Reading the wonderful book Intuitive Eating really helped me to drop the perfectionism with food and with my body. I highly recommend it. The website IntuitiveEating.org has all sorts of free resources from the authors. Details about what this way of eating is and how you can incorporate it into your life. This information will be super helpful if you are ready to drop the perfectionism and makes peace with food and with your body.

I am off to do a gentle 20 minute menopause workout with my awesome quirky Pahla B on YouTube since I actually finished this week’s newsletter in under an hour. Progress Not Perfection for the win!

If you are interested in using the power of the mind to uplevel your life, I share mindset expertise every week, along with fun & insightful stories from my own life path from 80s hair band superfan to chemical engineer to health & mindset coach (what a journey!).

You will also see plenty of health promoting tips and recipes because I am blown away by the power of intermittent fasting + a healthy diet to prevent & reverse just about any health concern Mindset plays a big part in health and healing too, the power of the Mind Body connection is pretty mind blowing.