What does success mean to you?
For many of us, especially those with perfectionistic tendencies, success can feel like an all-or-nothing pursuit. You might feel like you need to meet your goals exactly, or you’ve failed. This type of thinking can make it hard to celebrate any progress you’re making—because unless it’s “perfect,” it doesn’t feel like enough. But here’s a powerful shift: success doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, real success is about progress, growth, and learning, not about achieving perfection.
Perfectionism teaches us to define success as hitting impossible standards. But when you start to redefine success in a healthier way, you create room for progress that’s more sustainable and satisfying. Success isn’t about being flawless—it’s about moving forward, even if the steps are small and imperfect.
How Perfectionism Distorts Success
Perfectionism often distorts your view of success, making it feel like anything less than perfect isn’t good enough. You might feel like you need to control every aspect of your eating, exercise, or recovery, and if you can’t do it perfectly, you’ve failed. This all-or-nothing mindset can make it difficult to recognise your accomplishments or feel good about the progress you’re making.
Here’s how perfectionism distorts success:
• With food: You might feel like you need to follow a perfect meal plan, and if you deviate even slightly, you’ve “ruined” your day. This makes it hard to appreciate the fact that you’re working toward a healthier relationship with food.
• With body image: You might have a specific, rigid idea of what your body needs to look like to feel “successful.” Any changes or fluctuations in your weight might feel like a setback, even when they’re part of a healthy process.
• In recovery: You might feel like recovery needs to be a linear, perfect journey. If you experience a setback or slower progress, perfectionism might convince you that you’re failing.
But success doesn’t have to look perfect to be meaningful. In fact, the most important successes are often found in the small, steady steps you take toward growth, healing, and balance.
Redefining Success in Recovery
When you start to redefine success in your recovery, you open yourself up to celebrating progress, no matter how small. You begin to realise that success isn’t about perfection or meeting rigid goals—it’s about showing up for yourself, being consistent, and learning along the way.
For example:
• With food: Instead of feeling like success means eating “perfectly,” you redefine success as listening to your body’s needs and making choices that honour those needs, even if they don’t follow a strict plan.
• With body image: Success isn’t about meeting a specific weight or body shape—it’s about learning to appreciate your body for what it can do and how it supports you, rather than how it looks.
• In recovery: Success doesn’t mean never having setbacks—it means continuing to move forward, even when things get tough. It’s about showing up for yourself every day, even when recovery feels difficult.
By redefining success, you start to let go of the pressure to be perfect and make room for real progress that’s sustainable and rooted in self-compassion.
Redefining Success in the “Progress Over Perfection” Workbook
In my “Progress Over Perfection” workbook, I’ll guide you through exercises that help you redefine success in a healthier, more compassionate way. The goal is to help you let go of the rigid definitions of success that perfectionism creates and replace them with a more balanced, realistic understanding of what success truly looks like in your life.
Here’s what you’ll explore:
• Identifying your definition of success: You’ll start by reflecting on how you currently define success, especially around food, body image, and recovery. This helps you see where perfectionism might be driving unrealistic expectations.
• Redefining success: The workbook will guide you through the process of redefining success in a way that aligns with your values, your needs, and your personal growth. You’ll learn how to celebrate small wins and appreciate the progress you’re making, even when it’s not perfect.
• Learning to celebrate progress: Success isn’t about the end goal—it’s about the steps you take to get there. The workbook will help you learn how to celebrate your progress, whether it’s sticking to a recovery goal, eating intuitively, or taking care of yourself in a new way.
By the end of this section, you’ll have tools to help you redefine success in a way that’s kinder, more flexible, and more aligned with your long-term recovery and well-being.
Curious About Redefining Success?
What would change if you stopped seeing success as perfection and started viewing it as progress? What if you allowed yourself to celebrate the small steps, the imperfect wins, and the effort you’re putting in, instead of focusing on how far you have to go? The “Progress Over Perfection” workbook is here to help you redefine success in a way that supports your recovery and growth, without the pressure of perfectionism.
Ready to Redefine Success?
Success isn’t about perfection—it’s about showing up, growing, and learning. Order your copy of the “Progress Over Perfection” workbook today, and start redefining success in a way that supports your recovery and self-worth.
