What Does Perfectionism Mean

When we meet others who may be able to perform a simple task seemingly well, we feel threatened, and act through envy, hurting others in the process. Most importantly, we end up hurting ourselves, for trying to aim for perfection when it doesn’t exist. As I grew up, my aspirations of being the perfect student were met with unsatisfactory results. At one point, if I were to mess up for any reason, I felt there’d been no need to continue as I felt that I’d failed myself. However, the road to perfection became a narrow path to failure. Over time, I realized that it’s perfectly okay to make mistakes; that we have the ability to learn from them and take those lessons and apply them in the future. As I began to let go of any frustrations regarding not achieving as much as all of the others, I came to the conclusion that the only competition worth having is with myself. Learning to use my past self as a reason to become a better person. I aspire to attend Lynn University as a graduate student looking to further my knowledge and feed my many curiosities on the human mind and learn from how culture and context can bring about the set personalities of others and shape their

It’s been three hours while I sit here and stare at the blinking bar, symbolizing the fact that I have nothing. My page is blank, but I promise you, my thoughts are not. Thousands of ways to start this essay have run through my mind, but none of them are sufficient. Which, I suppose, is where I will begin. Perfectionism, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is, “a disposition to regard anything short of perfection as unacceptable” (“Perfectionism”). It is a trait that numerous people might regard as desirable or something to be proud of; a word used to describe oneself on a resume to impress employers. However, I see it much differently. Perfectionism is a fight for something unobtainable, a cyclical trap in which disappointment reigns, and

Often times, nothing is good enough. Many adolescent people can relate to this quote. Parents often force their children into working very hard, (even at an exhausting rate), which makes them feel like their best is not good enough; that they are not good enough to be members in their own family. All of those factors can drive the youth to go into a serious stage of depression or low self-esteem; or become a "sad-faced youth." It is like their time of innocence, fun, and youth is being ripped from their cold, dead hands.

Perfectionism is the essential idea that by achieving something great or being loyal to a concept, a person, or an organization, one is able to create a code they can follow to pursue or to achieve perfection. Take in for example Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tale called The Pardoner's Tale, where a Pardoner; who is a man associated with no church and only pardons for money; tells a tale of greed, betrayal, retaliation, and death. He proclaims that the moral of this story is the Latin phrase, Radix malorum est cupiditas, which roughly translates to the love of money is the root of all evil. In addition, there is the epic poem Beowulf, where the titular character, known by all as the

By looking through history or just at the world around us, anyone who was even great was doubted or harassed; but because those people chose to fight through these struggles which eventually led to their success and happiness. Success is never given, is it earned. I love how this quote gives insight to the basic morals of people, the basic morals that people mold their life

The determination of an overachieving student causes an obsession with perfection. Rodriguez explains the concept of an overachiever and their want to always be perfect. In paragraph 15, Rodriguez

Perfectionism can be defined as an individual’s determination of extremely high standards of performance and behaviour. Hagen (2016) suggests that perfectionism stems from a genetic predisposition combined with environmental factors and an individual’s life experiences.

Do you push yourself to be the best? Do you get mad at yourself for not doing the best? Do you delay assignments till the last possible limit because of fear of rejection? Do you feel horrible when work isn’t done to your best ability of when minor failures seem like catastrophic ones? These are all signs of what is known as perfectionism (Pacht 1984). If you seem to agree with most of these things then you might be a perfectionist. According to Webster’s dictionary, it states that perfectionism is "a disposition which regards anything less than perfect, unacceptable." Many people in the world suffer from perfectionism. So is that case of Mike Bellah. His perfectionism lead him to a lifestyle where he lost

Jeannette’s mother made it clear she did not have a considerable amount of faith in her. In one circumstance, Walls took note of how marveled her Mom was at Lori’s brilliance. She wrote, “‘Lori gets straight As,’ she once told me. ‘So do I,’ I said. ‘Yes, but you have to work for them’" (Walls 159). Natural talent obtains admiration, yet hard work is pitiful. Putting effort into something should not be looked down upon. Hard work shows passion, for a person can submit to a challenge rather than withstand the long haul. Jeannette should not have been belittled for having to work harder towards her achievements than her sister. Being a “try hard” is laughed at until it furthers a person to success. Reaching a goal is more of a breeze with natural

Striving for perfection is something that would better improve our society and really change the way we see what society is because everyone would be making an effort to really strive for the ideal world of flawlessness. Just the mere idea of getting closer to perfection is something that makes us attempt to be more perfect. In the article, “Cheaters Never Win,” Christopher Bergland, a Guinness World Record holding athlete says that, ¨yes, you want to be your absolute best and to try our hardest to win and to be thrilled if you are victorious” (Bergland 7). Bergland is trying to inform his readers that our society would be a better place because everyone is trying their best to succeed and in this case, be their most perfect self. In order for the society to reach perfection, everyone should be trying their very best in order to strive for perfection. We should all be putting forth all our effort we have in order to get just a little bit closer to the idea of perfection and flawlessness. Society would improve for the better if all individuals strived for the world of perfection because every single person would give all that they’ve got in order to make this world just a little bit more perfect. This quote from Bergland is saying that we all need to try our hardest to strive for flawlessness and that we should be thrilled if we do achieve this goal. Trying our best from the start just makes us closer to reaching perfection which allows us to have the driven passion to be

I have always assumed that being a perfectionist was a good thing. From an early age I became enchanted with the “Charlie Sheen mentality;” I had to be “winning,” or at least convince myself that I was. An internal voice encouraged me to be the best that I could be, and failure, quite simply, was not in my vocabulary. However, as I prepared to enter high school, my innate desire to be a perfectionist truly acted as the anchor that slowly weighed me down. I learned that perfection was undeniably unattainable in my life; my devotion to “perfectionism” led me astray on a long, twisting path of deceit. I occupied my time with unchallenging schoolwork and “cheated the system” by electing to compete in the baseball league designed for kids a full year younger than me. As it turns out, trying to be a big fish in a little pond was the way I insulated myself from failure, the way I falsely convinced myself that I was “winning.” I was afraid to try, or rather I was afraid of the possibility that I might try and fail. Attempting something difficult carried the risk of not succeeding, and with it the implication that

. . paralyze [mavericks, dissenters, and dreamers] by insisting that every step be a step up to the next rung of the ladder.” I completely agree. To tell people that have potential, ability, and talent, that they ought to succeed without ever tasting failure, this is not only unrealistic but also deprecating. In so doing, we hold them back; for we do not tell them about all the times that things did not go according to plan. Additionally, we do not tell them about our missteps; we only tell them about our achievements. Parents say “Don’t fail!” and cause their children to become more prone to deficiency. This is why we must let it be known that failure is a part of life, and that to go through it simply helps to eliminate paths that will not lead to

During my freshman year, what I viewed as the worst possible event happened, (PAUSE) I got a B on my report card. I know that sounds dramatic but freshman me thought my world was ending. I now know that a B is a perfectly acceptable grade and that it's not the end of the world. But this raises the question, why did I think that a B was such a bad thing? Last year I worked on figuring out why I viewed B's as a bad thing. The end result of my thinking was that I am a perfectionist. Merriam Webster Dictionary defines perfectionism as “refusal to accept any standard short of perfection.” The reach for perfection can be painful because it is often driven by both a desire to do well and a fear of the consequences of not doing well. The problem is

Perfectionism is when one sets very high expectations often in an “overly critical manner” (Frost, Marten, Lahart,&Rosenblate,1990).

Perfection is a deadly sickness. It is a wicked plague which clouds the mind, destroys focus, and eliminates any value you may hold for yourself. We are all told that perfectionism is, well, perfect. A flawless way to live where you make no mistakes, avoid any challenges, and are loved and cherished by everyone around you. But this cruel mindset is like a collar that chokes fun and kills passion, constricting joy and creativity in favor of the one and only best decision. The decision that will get you perfect grades, a perfect reputation, and nary an ounce of criticism. Now, while this might seem good, I can tell you for sure that it’s not. How? Because I’ve tried it.