Perfectionism 

Is perfectionism a bad thing?

I read a very interesting article on perfectionism in the most recent edition of Scientific American Mind. It was memorable, because it was the first time I read that the quality of perfectionism is not necessarily a bad thing.

My training and studies taught me that "the search for perfection is always a search for fault," and this made sense to me. When we have expectations of flawlessness, when it comes to our bodies, our work performance, our relationships or how we decorate our homes, our tendency is to focus on what's wrong, what's missing, or what could be improved upon. In other words, we're being negative. 

But the author of the article says that there is a healthy kind of perfectionism that keeps us striving toward excellence and achieving our goals. The difference between unhealthy and healthy perfectionism is in the impact that "errors" have on our self-esteem. The unhealthy perfectionist views an error as evidence of her defectiveness as a human being, while the healthy perfectionist sees an error as a learning opportunity. I like this distinction.

My plan was to publish this entry when I had the exact title of the article and reference information, but I made the mistake of leaving it in my office at school. I'm going to practice healthy perfectionism and put it out there anyway...

Stay tuned -

Ellen

*** Found it!  Laber, Warren, E. (2009). Can you be too perfect? Scientific American Mind, 20(4), p. 44-51.