3 Exhausting Behaviors Or A Person Obsessed With Being Perfect | Ruth Schimel, PhD
For some people, striving for perfection feels like a good thing. After all, as a perfectionist, you give everything your best, most concerted efforts. However, perfectionism doesn’t mean your work will be great, and in some cases, trying to be perfect all the time can actually become a self-sabotaging habit. Perfectionists often don’t just want their work to be perfect — they feel like it needs to be, to prove their value to themselves and others. That can lead to an endless inner cycle of self-criticism that lowers self-esteem over time. Although I generally avoid being a perfectionist, I am suffering from the self-sabotaging effects of perfectionism right now as I edit a challenging, long chapter in my seventh book. Losing count of the endless iterations, I find the whole process very humbling. It also exposes how closely my ego is entangled with this process, even though I should be able to let go after less obsessive experiences with previous books. Yet, in this situation, I realized my issue is tying the chapter topic too …








