Side-stepping analysis paralysis

Hi, my name is curiousalexa, and I'm a recovering perfectionist.

I learn a lot by reading, but I learn even more by doing, making mistakes to learn from, trial and error, and all that. But as a recovering perfectionist, I hate to do something if I think I won't do it perfectly. This tendency frequently leads to analysis paralysis - spending all my time reading and contemplating, and never getting around to the doing and making the mistakes from which to learn!

I have had a number of people say "Yes, me too! How do you get around it?!" So I am sharing some of my tricks to side-stepping analysis paralysis in hopes that others might find one or more of them to be useful in their own lives.

1. Baby steps. Tiny tiny baby steps!
   Most tasks are actually large projects. Break them down into tiny manageable actions. IME, a project triggers perfection expectations, while tiny tasks are so small, they have no intrinsic perfection gauge.
   e.g. I'm learning to cook from scratch using stored and garden ingredients. That's a huge project. But if I just go through my recipe collection and write down names of things that can be made from stored items, that's a little task. Making a shopping list of the common ingredients of those recipes was another little task. Purchasing the common ingredients was a larger task, but because I wasn't buying for *particular* recipes, there was no intrinsic perfection.
   And now I have a stock of storage ingredients when I want to try a new scratch recipe!
   


2. Skip the shoulds and play with the wannas.
   There are many many things we think we 'should' change in our lives. It is difficult (impossible?) to change everything all at once. So pick and choose where you start your changes. (This is also a good reason to start living a lower-energy lifestyle now, while many of these changes are still optional.)
   e.g. I should eat locally. I wanna grow my own food. For now, that which I cannot grow, I will avoid stressing about. Eventually I will wanna find local food options to supplement my homegrown food, but not today!
   


3. Review successes.
   I frequently have to remind myself of my successes, or I get stuck in the failures.
   e.g. I have successfully transitioned from commercial shampoo to baking soda. An entire aisle of the grocery store gone from my life! There is something rewarding about looking at those aisles and saying "nah-nah, I don't need you!"
   


4. Let your inner child play
   All work and no play makes anyone a dull person! Have fun with your challenges. Make them into games.
   e.g. arduous mentions playing "what would MacGyver do?" For a lower energy lifestyle, 'playing' at living like Little House on the Prairie is appealing to many people. The best part is games have limited duration. You don't have to keep playing the same game all the time, but the skills you learn will stay with you for future games.
   

A long time ago I was trying to figure out the purpose of life, the purpose for my/everyone's existence. The conclusion I finally came to was that I could not answer that question. Reality is, here I am, so I may as well enjoy it. Don't sweat the small stuff. And really? It truly is all small stuff (unless you're a teenager!)