Understand why being a perfectionist only hurts you

It is normal for us to want our work, whatever it may be, to be done with quality and mastery, and that desire makes many of us become perfectionists - and very proud in most cases.

But is the pursuit of perfection healthy? According to research by Thomas Curran and Andrew P. Hill, who conducted a dense analysis of studies on the topic between 1989 and 2016, perfectionism has no positive effect on people, and is not a feature of which we should be proud.

The researchers' first finding was that perfectionism is a common thread among people with certain types of mental illness, such as depression, social anxiety, agoraphobia, anorexia, insomnia, and even suicidal thoughts. Just to give you an idea, perfectionism may even be behind the behavior of children with eating disorders.

Vixe!

A 2009 study found that people who seek to be perfectionists are also more likely to die early than people who do not seek to be perfect all the time. On the other hand, the most outgoing and optimistic ones, who do not charge themselves as much, are also those who usually have a longer life and less pressure.

Perfectionism is seen by many as a feature that helps a good employee to work even harder and perform well, but this reasoning is not very true.

To work on this notion, Hill experimented with perfectionist and non-perfectionist people, asking them to fulfill an unknown goal that was actually impossible. All the volunteers worked, and those who gave up early and got more frustrated were the perfectionists.

Try to be perfect = live frustrated

If you take a success story, whatever it is, you will realize that the person who got what you wanted possibly faced some mishaps and only succeeded just because you didn't give up, right? This shows us, once again, the downside of perfectionism, which makes us want the best possible from the very first attempts, when in fact it is perseverance that leads us to personal fulfillment.

If you consider yourself a perfectionist, you know very well how you react to what doesn't work and when a new goal comes up, don't you? Possibly, your perfectionism does not make you a better employee or a more dedicated student, but a more pressured, anxious, and perhaps even more frustrated person.

To improve the situation, do daily mental exercises and review your concepts of your routines and work. Try to understand that demanding too much of yourself is always a trap, and that all people, all the same, sometimes fail. Failure is not the problem. The problem is how you react when you fail.

If you feel that the pressure is excessive and you cannot turn off, that you have not slept or eaten well, for example, consider seeking psychological help. Good therapy may be the best way to learn how to deal with this all-pervading inner voice that makes you an increasingly demanding and less accomplished person.