[WestCoast]

Perfectionism is really just insecurity. (For vast majority)

This is why many investment bankers/lawyers/consultants etc. have a very tough time with women. They want everything to be "perfect". That's just not how it is.

Striving for perfectionism creates a negative feed back effect. You spend 17 hours in a day putting together a document you see a formatting error or grammar error and you scream at yourself. Fuck why am I so stupid fuck fuck fuck.

This is death to your personality.

Perfectionism needs to be replaced with passion.

That's the solution to someone with an obsession with perfectionism. Be passionate about everything in your life that you deem good for you.

[Lights]

Awesome thread. I can totally relate.

Sometimes, when the ego gets in my way, I reach into my mind to talk to it, like:

"Fuck it, let's just see what happens."

My ego can handle that, and kind of moves out of the way.

For the workout principle, I'd tell the ego:

"Look, I have to go to the gym on principle. I'll just be 15 minutes today, see if I can get something going, no big deal."

It sounds really silly, but I'm telling you, my mind tries to take control with doubts and predicting failure before it even happens. I really have to rein in on it by telling these things to myself ALL THE TIME.

When I get overwhelmed, I already know what's going on.

"Ok, forget about all that stuff, let's just take a step to see if we can get this going. What can we do right now."

Keeping a journal helps me, too. I'll tell myself, do it for the story.
My ego can relate to that.