Advantages And Disadvantages Of Being Too Perfectionist
Are you a perfectionist? Be careful, don’t let it get out of hand!
It’s clear, We all have a certain interest in learning and improving in different areas or aspects of our lives For people with a marked trait of perfectionism, it is the pursuit of excellence that motivates them to improve. Being meticulous, restrained, perseverant, responsible… are characteristics that can accompany the perfectionist tendencies of human beings, being able to bring out the best in themselves. However, frustration, anxiety, stubbornness and lack of effectiveness can be the worst enemies of this same behavioral profile.
How to differentiate “good” perfectionism from that which is not? At what point can being too perfectionistic be counterproductive for oneself? Below we analyze the details that help us extract the best from this personality trait.
People who function through adaptive, or good, perfectionism have these characteristics:
Another advantage of adaptive perfectionism is that it makes us able to understand and tolerate that there is a certain degree of uncontrollability in what happens on a daily basis, so that we become more tolerant of uncertainty.
Adaptive perfectionism is accompanied by important self-reinforcement and good self-esteem. Thus, the person is able to value his strengths, reward himself for his achievements and take care of himself.
The person with adaptive perfectionism capable of enjoying a wide variety of activities and disconnecting despite the inconveniences or small imperfections to which they are exposed every day at work, personal relationships…
In the end, adaptive perfectionism is based on allowing yourself the freedom to not be perfect, and ultimately, to be human. It is clear that the profile we have described is highly desired and highly praised on a social, personal and professional level.
But… What happens when we exceed limits in which the person begins to experience suffering? In this case, we would talk about a maladaptive perfectionismwith the following characteristics:
These people set too many goals for themselves. that are not realistic when it comes to being fulfilled.
They put a lot of emphasis on being excessively orderly and controlling and usually wastes a lot of time on these aspects and on irrelevant details, losing focus on what is truly important.
A person with maladaptive perfectionism worries a lot about mistakes which he cannot bear to commit, and is excessively afraid of criticism from others.
He doesn’t enjoy his job , you focus only on the result and the reinforcement you will get from others. When he does not achieve this, he suffers greatly.
You think your work is never good enough and that it can always be done better, so you have the feeling that you never finish the tasks or that you leave them incomplete.
Emphasize everything that is wrong , instead of recognizing what is well done. This leads to a weakened self-esteem by disregarding your strengths and focusing on your weaknesses.
The excessive self-demand due to perfectionism leads to developing high levels of anxiety and suffering He does not tolerate his own error and sometimes neither does that of others.
It is difficult for him to disconnect from the goals of perfection sometimes you can get into a loop where you can’t stop thinking about how to keep improving, fixing bugs, or what’s left to do.
He does not tolerate the frustration of not being perfect, not doing everything right or not controlling it 100%.
Maladaptive perfectionism is a way of taking life goals that has great drawbacks Despite the great efforts made by those who adopt this style of perfectionism, these people are always frustrated, tired or anxious and will not always perform as well as they could if they took a somewhat more flexible attitude.
We are all satisfied with doing things very well, even perfect sometimes, but that does not mean that we cannot accept our imperfections from ourselves.
