Why Perfectionism Is So Rampant in Our Field

There's a version of this job where you never say "I don't know." Where you excuse yourself, look it up on your phone, and come back like you had it the whole time. A professor I admired (and still do, genuinely) told my grad school class to do exactly that before our first practicums. At the time I thought, well, if that's what I have to do, I guess I'll do it. Thirteen years later, I think it's the worst advice I've ever heard. This came to me on a whim while I was working on something else. No script, no notes. Just me thinking out loud about why perfectionism runs through our whole field. A lot of us have been taught that we can't be anything less than perfect. So we cling to control, because we don't want anyone to know what we don't know. And then we don't try. We don't take the one small step toward child-led speech therapy, because we can't do the whole thing perfectly yet. I get into the pickleball invitation I turned down, the day I read a post about research and landed back in grad school shame, and what trying to be a perfect clinician cost me. This one is as much for me as it is for you. TIMESTAMPS Part one 04:07 No script, no notes, and the podcast I was listening to in the car that started all of this 06:31 Perfectionism as a coping mechanism, and where imposter syndrome fits 08:56 The all or nothing mentality, and what it costs us as a field 11:18 The advice my grad school professor gave us right before our first practicums 15:59 The pickleball invitation, and why I won't do something I might be bad at 20:49 Thirteen years later: what trying to be a perfect clinician actually cost me Part two (the recording picks back up here, four days later, after my kids came barging in) 02:27 The post about research, the shame that followed, and the kind of content creator I want to be 11:48 What I will and won't go back and learn, and why I'm okay drawing that line CALL TO ACTION If this one landed for you, would you leave a review wherever you listen? It would mean the world to me!