Perfectionism | An overview

“Perfectionism is a phobia of mistake-making,” said Jeff Szymanski, executive director of the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation, which is based in Boston. “It is the feeling that ‘If I made a mistake, it will be catastrophic.'” Perfectionism is a psychological disorder which is believed by the person with this illness that being flawless should be accomplished. They feel that they are obligated to reach exceptionally idealistic ambitions when in fact it’s non-compulsory because everyone should just strive to do the best they can. However, perfectionistic attitude is an interference with their success. The desperation of having unrealistic aspiration can ruin their anticipations because it eventually causes disappointment. Perfectionism is sometimes influenced by an early stage in a person’s life. This person has a perception that people would appreciate them more if they are perfect. In other words, their goals are based on peripheral outlook and not from their own desires. Hence, they only feel that they are worthy if only people would recognize their importance. Although being a perfectionist sees every mistake as a chance for progress and learning, people with this disorder should learn how to control it because it will lead to being defensive when appraised and to being depressed when faced with a failure.

Each individual has goal in their life but for perfectionist, they have goals that are higher or beyond their imagination. There is definitely nothing erroneous to be ruthless, have dreams and eventually work it out to pursue them. If there’s no single person that has goal in life then most of the advancement that people are enjoying these should not be even here. So if they have managed to get through their aim, sure enough they would enjoy the outcome.

Being a perfectionist has great advantage because unlike an ordinary person who is contented with a mediocre performance, they could arrive at a level of success that is almost perfect. That’s why they received a lot of admiration from people which they really deserved and reacted positively. They are confident that their goals will be reached since they are very competent individual and has an optimistic mind-set. Thus, it will somehow boost their self-esteem and obtain greater accomplishments.

People are not like God. They are not perfect that’s why it is normal to commit mistakes and eventually recuperate from the loss. But for the perfectionist, they can’t control it. They should make all things right. Therefore, they became less efficient because they are meticulous even to the last detail and wasn’t able to complete a task. When the moment of failure haunt them, they will loath themselves for being inadequate and as a result, it can lead to low self-worth and despair. The other thing is that they become engrossed with fear that they can’t easily recover from it. This also meant of losing the opportunity to improve themselves because they perceive mistakes as an indication of unworthiness.

Not being contented with what they attained can lead to a miserable life because they don’t know how to let go and move on with their lives and or learn from their mistakes; they still hold on to their problem and eventually causes disturbance that is suicidal. The reason that they can’t let go is that they dreaded the consequences of losing everything. This is also the source of anxiety since they wanted to be perfect with everything; consequently, they place themselves under a great deal of pressure. After experiencing nervous tension, they wouldn’t be able to be successful and as a result, will intensify the probability of experiencing tragedy. If their imperfections are recognized by others, they became fearful that they will be abandoned by the society. Because of this, they strive to be perfect to protect themselves from humiliation and condemnation.

If only a person with this illness can control their strong urge to do everything perfectly then it will not be called as a disorder. Since their goals are set irrationally or unrealistically, they tend to disappoint themselves after which they feel that misfortune had befallen upon them. They eventually became traumatized that every circumstances they encountered became catastrophic. Perfectionist became devastated when they stumble upon petty mistakes that they were excessively troubled about not being able to overcome it. Due to their inflexible attributes, they become anxious and dysfunctionally depressed.

There are important points that a perfectionist has to realize. Perfectionism is a delusion that is unfeasible and striving very hard to do everything is pointless. They are just wasting their time being faultless when in fact their work is already gratifying. They should try to do their best and not to be perfect in everything because the no one really notices things in a detailed way unless their audience is also a perfectionist. Perfectionist has to comprehend that committing mistakes are the only way one can be perfect, through learning from their mistakes is the only way to identify their error. They should challenge themselves to turn away from that fixation or being obsessed because sooner or later it will be a curse in their life.

Sources:

Bregman, P. (2009). How to Escape Perfectionism. http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2009/09/how- to-escape-perfectionism.html.

Egan, S. (2005). An Investigation of Positive and Negative Perfectionism. http://adt.curtin.edu.au/theses/available/adt- WCU20060906.150230/unrestricted/01Front.pdf.

McGarvey, J. (n.d.). The Almost Perfect Definition. http://www.rps.psu.edu/sep96/almost.html.

Neumeister, K. (n.d.) Perfectionism in Gifted Children. Retrieved from http://iag- online.org/perfect.htm.

Perfectionism. (2007). Retrieved frromhttp://www.counselingcenter.illinois.edu/?page_id=113.