What is it : Perfectionism
Perfectionism tends to be everyone’s default option when asked their biggest weakness. It sounds like an excuse for having high standards so it seems harmless to call it a problem. Dead wrong.
Perfectionists are never happy with what they achieve, they feel they can do better even when they don’t have the ability. They will often experience feelings of failure as the goals they set can be unrealistic and many times, impossible to reach.
Common Signs : Perfectionism
Are any of these you?:
- View mistakes as failures
- Holding high, often unrealistic goals rationalised as having high standards
- Spend excessive time planning or analysing to try to make it perfect
- Avoiding risk unless “success” is guaranteed
- Refusing to show others your work in progress until you are ready
- Focusing on the % you got ‘wrong’ rather than the 70% which already represents an exceptional outcome
- Getting angry when accused of delay when time was being spent improving the result
- Fearing feedback as it is represents criticism
- Trouble adapting if events do not go the way they were planned in your mind.
Tackling it : Perfectionism
If you are brave enough to put your hand up and own some of the behaviours on the list above then you have a starting point. Not just to manage the challenge in hand but to allow you to embrace a lighter way of thinking that is the fast track to personal growth.
Cultivating the right mindset is crucial to overcoming perfectionism. A lot of people talk about mindset but not that many really understand how it works and how to change it.