Lets talk PERFECTION at it's extreme

https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/brownjayy/8kV42Uz9-downfails-of-being-a-perfectionist.png

_{[Image Source](https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Feasyonlinebizsolutions.com%2Finspiration%2Fperfectionist-attitude%2F&psig=AOvVaw15H7CSlf3AeojeH4-negBK&ust=1589190788615000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCIDktKaEqekCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAZ)} **Are you a perfectionist?** Lets break this down - Are you the kind that spends a lot of time making sure your work is **Perfected**, so as to ensure everything comes out just the way you want it? well, this might just be for you, kindly read along. i believe we all are in one way or the other perfectionist, we set high bars so high and put our best in just to see them achieved. We tend give a lot of dedication, time and attention to our passion for excellence which keeps us going and takes us the extra mile never stopping, never relenting. In the long run, our dedication towards perfection helps us to achieve great results, but behind this there is a non visible side to being perfectionists that we may not be aware of. As ironic as this might sound, **perfectionism in its extreme actually prevents us from being our best.** *How so? lets examine this with some examples:* ***We procrastinate***. The desire to perfect virtually everything makes us in the long run to get a simple project complicated while we wait for the perfect timing. What should normally be a simple task often gets blown out of proportion, to the extent that it becomes subconsciously intimidating, thus making us procrastinate on it, the wait for the ever perfect which often times never strikes till its too late. ***We become less efficient***. often times,we get done with a task but then we linger over it for more minutes, from 10 minutes to 20 minutes then possibly 30 minutes and so much more looking for little additions to make the work better without considering if such additions are any necessary; at the end the task might turn or valueless or ruined as a result of such additions. A relatable example is stacking a blog layout with so many things or adding so much than required details to a presentation. ***We tend to rigmarole over unfounded problems.*** For perfectionist, it is a natural thing to anticipate problems even before they become a problem, and then find a way to crop up solutions to address these non existent problems. It in the long run becomes an obsession to pre-empt problems and in most cases it turns out most of these problems either never really do surface or they don’t matter that much. when they eventually do. ***We miss the bigger picture.*** We are just way too hung up over details that we actually forget about to take cognisance of the bigger picture and the end vision. Just think about it: > *Between pruning the trees and growing the forest, it's not uncommon to see better jobs done in the former than the latter.*

Just so we are clear on this, the problem really isn’t perfectionism. Well, not the normal perceived form of perfectionism anyway as perfectionism really helps us to consistently aim for much more higher standards and become better, so it’s obviously a good thing. The problem here lies simply in when the quest for perfectionism turns into an obsession, better put in its extreme – so much so that the perfectionist becomes somewhat neurotic over acquiring perfection and in effect refuses to accept anything less than perfect. In this process, he/she tends to miss the whole point altogether. Such perfectionists can be known as “maladaptive perfectionists”. From my point of view, the solution here isn’t to stop being a perfectionist, No. rather it’s to be conscious of one's perfectionist tendencies and try to manage them accordingly. We all should aspire and thrive to be that healthy perfectionists whom are truly achieving personal excellence, not the maladaptive perfectionists who ends up sabotaging personal growth efforts. That being said, i have put down some personal tips on how we can be healthy perfectionist rather than the maladaptive, ones of which i will share with you all on my next post, kindly use the comment section to express your views on this, i would love to hear from you...

**...till my next post, STAY SAFE!**

Originally posted here: https://hive.blog/blog/@brownjayy/lets-talk-perfection-in-it-s-extreme