How can you tell if you are a perfectionist?
A perfectionist is someone who holds the underlying belief that perfection can be attained and it should be.
Many people in our world today are perfectionists or have been perfectionists at some point in our lives. You can usually spot a perfectionist a mile away, simply because of the extremist behavior that is exhibited.
Are You A Perfectionist?
Below are some of the common threads in their actions or thoughts:
- A perfectionist is highly conscious and hyper-critical of any signs of mistakes. He/she has an extremely sharp eye towards details
- A perfectionist aims to be the best in everything he or she does, even if it is something that he or she is not interested in
- A perfectionist often spends copious amount of time, right down to the last moment, to perfect something. He or she would rather sacrifice on a personal level (such as sleep, eating time, etc) than let something be less than it can be
- A perfectionist sets absolute ideals on things in life. There is only black and white, no grey.
- A perfectionist is the harshest critic of himself/herself. He/she would beat themselves up over the smallest thing that went wrong, to the extent of being neurotic
- A perfectionist mulls over outcomes if they did not turn out as envisioned
- A perfectionist is defensive towards criticism and has a fear of failure because it suggests something he/she did was not perfect
- A perfectionist only has the end goal in mind. If he/she does not achieve the goal, it really does not matter what happens in the process
- A perfectionist has an all-or-nothing approach. If the situation does not allow him/her to achieve the standard he/she laid out, he/she will abandon the task because it does not make sense to spend time on something that he/she is not going to conquer
- A perfectionist is very self-conscious about any situation which might give others the perception he/she is not perfect
- If you are a perfectionist, you will find the above traits highly familiar to you.