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If you feel queazy and nauseous every time something is not meticulously put together or set, or things are not going according to your schedule, then you are probably a perfectionist, just like me

While being perfect and achieving perfection is not supposed to be negative, being a perfectionist is considered something we need to remove and battle to suppress because it impacts our productivity and even our relationships with others.

Well, being a perfectionist has some good aspects but also some adverse effects when it is taken to extremes. First things first, we need to define what perfectionism is in order to understand its negative aspects.

Perfectionism can be defined as an unhealthy obsession with flawlessness and the pursuit of unattainable standards. It's characterized by a relentless drive to be perfect, often leading to excessive self-criticism, anxiety, and difficulty completing tasks. While striving for excellence is a positive quality, perfectionism takes it to an unhealthy extreme, hindering personal growth and well-being.

Perfectionism per se is not detrimental; it can be beneficial in specific situations. For instance, striving for perfection can help us:

Build A Strong Work Ethic

Trying to be perfect while carrying out our work tasks builds a strong work ethic. Even though we talk about productivity, toxic workplaces, or bad colleagues, we rarely pay attention to an extremely important trait that can take our careers to the next level: work ethic. So, being a perfectionist supports our work ethic development and can help us pursue more career opportunities.

Pay Attention to Detail

What I have noticed about myself all these years of striving for perfection is that my meticulous nature guarantees that my tasks are completed with precision and accuracy without many mistakes since I pay extreme attention to almost every little detail. This has always resulted in delivering nearly flawless results in whatever I have undertaken.

Have Drive and Motivation

When you are a perfectionist, you are often driven to succeed and motivated to put in the extra effort to achieve your goals. This means that you always have reasons to move forward and be motivated to deliver the best results, whether in small tasks like writing a group email or more extensive projects.

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And after we blew our own trumpet on how we perfectionists manage to navigate life, let’s now see how perfectionism can have the exact opposite effects on our productivity and well-being.

To begin with, it’s not always easy to acknowledge that you are a perfectionist, mainly because perfectionism is often connected to constructive criticism and not as a skill. So, it takes a lot of personal work to realize that you need to slow down and stop expecting everything to be immaculate. If you are too perfect to expect something less, we can read below to understand how perfectionism can hinder your productivity and your progress at work.

It Pushes Us Toward Procrastination

Being a perfectionist means you want everything you deliver, from the less important to the most crucial things, to be flawless without any mistakes. The fear of making mistakes can lead you to procrastinate and cause severe delays in delivering projects and tasks. I can’t even think about how often I delayed replying to a client because I needed a supervisor to check my work or hesitated to start tasks or projects out of fear of making a mistake. This behavior is not only exhausting for you, but it can also have consequences for your work and your performance.

It Causes Stress and Burnout

The constant pressure to be perfect can lead to excessive stress and burnout and harm your health and well-being. Countless times in my life have I felt overwhelmed and psychologically tired because I was trying so hard to be perfect and do everything demure that put massive pressure on me, causing symptoms of burnout and a complete denial to do my job since I spent so many hours to make everything right -as the perfectionist in me always thought that it’s never enough.

It Makes Us Set Unrealistic Expectations

One of the biggest problems my perfectionist nature gave me was setting unrealistic goals for myself and others. This means that when my “great expectations” weren’t fulfilled, I was disappointed and frustrated. This led me to ruin my relationships with my colleagues and people around me because they didn’t meet my expectations, or to phrase it better, my unrealistic expectations. Also, having this kind of attitude toward myself and others didn’t allow me to explore my full potential when I undertook more realistic expectations.

It Makes It Difficult To Delegate

Setting unrealistic expectations caused another important drawback that affected my professional development: I found it extremely difficult and suffocating to even consider delegating tasks to others. The fear of others not doing the tasks that I would delegate to them "right" made me feel sick, and I ended up spending hours at the office, which can make it difficult for perfectionists to delegate tasks.

Can We Overcome Perfectionism?

Yes, we can -that’s the short answer. It’s not a piece of cake, meaning you wake up one day and are not a perfectionist, but it’s highly achievable. The first step to overcoming it is acknowledging that you are a perfectionist. If you achieve this awareness and recognize the signs of perfectionism, you are almost half there. However, the following steps have helped me overcome many of my perfectionistic tendencies, and I can now say that my professional and personal life has improved significantly.

Try to identify the causes of perfectionism

The root cause of perfectionism can vary. You may have been raised in a home with high expectations from your family and your teacher, or you came across early societal demands requiring you to be exceptional in whatever you do. Also, perfectionism can be caused by imposter syndrome or a combination of external pressures and internal beliefs and experiences. Identifying and understanding what triggers you will help you manage it.

Limit the time you spend on tasks

As I mentioned above, perfectionism is an important ally of procrastination, considering you spend a lot of time completing your tasks. For this reason, try to limit the time you spend on each task by setting an alarm and calculating the time you spend on it. Giving yourself a set amount of time to complete a task can help prevent overworking. When the time is up, move on to something else. Being aware of your time can help you learn to be more efficient and accept that sometimes good enough is good enough.

Manage your expectations

Instead of having “great expectations” from you and others, try managing them. That might be something like giving a colleague a more extensive deadline to finish a task or permitting yourself not to review your email for the 100th time before you hit “send.” Managing your expectations is one of the most challenging parts of overcoming perfectionism, but it has multiple benefits for your development.

Let your mistakes teach you

I know it may sound hard to think (and read), but no one’s perfect, and mistakes are part of learning and growing. When you make a mistake, try to see it as an opportunity to learn something new instead of getting into frustration mode. Reframing our mistakes can help us move forward and learn more about ourselves and what we are capable of doing.