It's great to have high standards for yourself and for others up to a point. But in the long run, perfectionism is a losing strategy. You will probably already know about the stress, anxiety and possibly depression that it causes, and the strain it can put on relationships.
The fact is you can still have huge drive, determination and ambition without tyrannizing yourself and possibly others with the 'absolutist' tendency of perfectionism.
Perfectionism sucks the enjoyment from achievement
If you have perfectionist expectations of yourself then you constantly feel dissatisfied or 'a failure' even when others think you did a great job. You may find that your perfectionist expectations of others turn you into a control freak and that you constantly feel let down and disappointed by them.
No wonder that perfectionism, as a personality trait, is a big predictor of clinical depression
In most things, there is no 'perfect'
The 'if it's not absolutely perfect then it's a disaster' approach to life is also known as 'black and white' thinking. With black or white thinking there are no shades of gray. Everything is completely this or completely that. Does that sound familiar?
The trouble is that life is composed of shades of gray. If you expect perfection all the time then you will always be disappointed and your self-esteem will suffer.
Because everything could have been done better in retrospect. Neil Armstrong could have landed more elegantly on the Moon, the fastest ever one hundred meter sprint could have been a fraction of a second quicker and Shakespeare's sonnets could have been even more lyrical!
The trick is to know when to be 'all or nothing' and when to relax and see the shades of gray so you can 'give credit' to yourself and others for the effort and the attempt.
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Sometimes being quiet isn't a bad thing. You get to hear what others have to say & think of why they are saying that.
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Don't act as if you know alot when you know just that teeny weeny bit and yet want to share with people your experience ... it's just trying to show people how great you are that you've at least experienced it unlike others. bullshit.
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