What might an overweight person whose weight fluctuates and a fit, exercise queen have in common? Although they may appear to come from opposite mindsets, perfectionism can be at the root of both great struggles and great successes. Often times, perfectionist thinking causes unrealistic expectations that lead to unfulfilled realities, especially in the weight loss world. Here are a few ways to accept progress, not perfection:

Celebrate Small Accomplishments. Perfectionists view themselves as either a success or a failure, nothing in between. Healthy living is a lifelong journey. To keep momentum and hope in the process, we need to be excited about accomplishments and the willingness to keep going, even after setbacks.

Build a Positive Self-Image. While it is important to recognize our accomplishments, our self-image cannot depend solely on achievements. We are valuable! It is my belief that I am valuable to the God who created every living thing and that his love for me isn’t based on my achievements. That helps ground me. Also, if we spend more time doing the activities that we love, learning new skills and being of service to others rather than being self-critical, we will be less likely to beat ourselves up over the little things. Our eyes will be on the big picture!

Learn from Others. Sometimes it is easier to accept other people’s mistakes than our own. If we take a look around to others who have learned from their mistakes and keep moving forward, we can put our own setbacks into perspective and join them in success.

Getting and staying healthy does not require perfection! We make mistakes, we learn, we make more mistakes, we learn some more. To deny this reality hinders our ability to recover from mistakes and can limit great successes from occurring!

So here is my visual example of accepting progress and not perfection. These are my weigh-ins for my DietBet competitions. It represents a span of 27 pounds with ups and downs, mistakes and achievements. I’m choosing to focus on the big picture!