Striving for Perfection: Underlying Causes and Effects
The never-ending pursuit of the high standards one sets for oneself is perfectionism. The desire of perfection pushes a person towards unachievable ideals even if it may make them feel tense, uncomfortable, or even dangerous.
It is more typical for people to be perfectionists in several areas of life, even though there are those who are exclusively perfectionists in one, like their work. Any significant aspect, including job, education, relationships with others, sports, physical appearance, weight, cleanliness, hygiene, home conditions, friendships, music, and hobbies, might be included in this list.
Perfectionism may actually be more detrimental than beneficial if one's self-esteem is based on how well they can fulfil their own standards and if they become self-critical when they believe they fall short of a benchmark.
Helpful perfectionism differs from unhelpful/harmful perfectionism in that the former involves setting and meeting extremely high standards for oneself in spite of unfavourable outcomes, and the latter gauges one's value based on how closely one achieves these criteria.
Perfectionists frequently overanalyze the intricacies of their work and worry about what other people will think of them, which leads to stress. They frequently dread failure when working towards success because they believe they can't live up to their expectations.
This might occasionally lead to avoiding things out of a fear of failing at them. Even when they meet their goals, they frequently undervalue their accomplishments. They believe that everyone can accomplish their goals and that they are not challenging enough, so they establish even greater goals for themselves the following time.
Physical issues like stress, headaches, and sleeplessness
You will find yourself in a position where you are unable to win if you choose to dismiss every victory. Even if your objectives are met, you still feel inadequate.
A perfectionist's expectations will be very demanding, meaning they will be hard to meet. Setting and accepting high standards for yourself is crucial when it comes to perfectionism.
It is normal to have standards and objectives in life. When you are extremely critical of yourself for not living up to your own expectations, perfectionism sets in.
Perfectionists tend to concentrate on the bad. They tend to overlook the instances when they do fulfil their standards in favour of concentrating on the circumstances in which they don't. When they think on their perceived shortcomings, they frequently minimise themselves by saying, "I should have done this better." They continuously chastise themselves with negative remarks like:
Perfectionism is a tendency that can result in overly busy behaviour such as tedious checking, repetition of chores, spending too much time on tasks, avoiding tasks, procrastinating, delaying tasks, writing lists all the time, paying too much attention to details, and detesting squandering time.
It is possible to see behaviours like reading an email again before sending it or repeatedly rewriting and amending a document to make sure it is error-free. Perfectionists can occasionally take pleasure in the weariness that follows their work. These demonstrate to them that they are going outside their comfort zones.