In striving to be the very best version of ourselves, most of us will don the perfectionist’s hat from time to time. But it’s when perfection becomes an obsession that priorities get out of whack and problems arise.
According to Psychology Today, self-oriented perfectionists are people who engage in severe self-evaluation in an attempt to attain perfection and avoid failure. Socially-prescribed perfectionists, meanwhile, believe others are evaluating them critically, creating an external pressure to be perfect.
Whether it’s internally or externally driven, however, if perfectionism has become a point of pride for you, you should be aware that its constant pursuit not only stimulates stress, it’s been shown to hamper creativity, impede productivity, and ultimately work against business profitability.
Here’s how to tell if you’re teetering on the brink of a misguided need for precision:
No matter how motivated you are, your productivity is bound to suffer when you focus on results at the expense of the work process. In fact, the more focused you are on generating the perfect outcome, the more likely you are to experience performance anxiety and decrease your output. This can cost your business time and money, and threaten your reputation for reliability.
When we’re intent on ensuring that everything we produce is free of imperfections, we spend far more time tweaking, revising, and second-guessing ourselves than is necessary – yet we can still end up feeling vaguely dissatisfied with the results. Trying to fix what isn’t broken by revamping entire projects without compensation, for example, can leave you exhausted and with less time to pursue more worthwhile opportunities.
Fear of failure is one of the biggest whips spurring the perfectionist on. But rather than encouraging better and more creative results, worry about not meeting new goals keeps perfectionists stuck in the rut of falling back on what they already know. This status quo approach is far from compatible with the risk-taking mindset that’s often required for growing a business.
So, what can you do if you suspect that your need for perfection may be taking a toll on your business? To start, Curran advises reminding yourself that failure is not catastrophic. It’s also important to jump into carefully planned endeavors with both feet and not allow the idea of perfectionism to keep you from starting or finishing new projects.
Here are some additional words of professional wisdom to help offset an unhealthy dose of diligence:
In today’s competitive business environment, it’s only natural to want to achieve excellence in the form of work that’s as near perfect as possible. But with innovation continuing to lead the way to long-term success, your ability to adapt is more important. Putting fear of failure aside in favor of a more flexible approach to problem solving promotes resourcefulness and original thinking – two qualities proven to promote business growth.
So why not set the grueling pursuit of perfectionism aside for a time, and see what happens when you replace it with a new goal of good enough.
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