Is Perfectionism Stunting Your Growth?
Before you discard this post thinking that it’s not applicable to you, chances are that you are a perfectionist, at least to a degree.
Social components such as academic performance, professional competition, parental expectations, and personal standards, combined with internal pressures of avoiding failure, judgments, criticism, and disapproval from others — all drive our need to be perfect — in one sense or another!
From various bodies of research, there are five styles of perfectionism:
#1 — Self-oriented perfectionism: Folks falling under this style have extremely high personal standards and are very self-critical.
#2 — Socially-prescribed perfectionism: These people believe that other people expect them to be perfect. They are constantly worrying about how others will perceive them if they fail to meet their expectations.
#3 — Other-oriented perfectionism: People in this bucket expect other people to be perfect and are highly critical of those who fail to meet their high expectations. Very often, a person who is other-oriented will also be self-oriented.
#4 — Overt perfectionism: This category of folks constantly fear #failure. They will do everything they can to prevent it. They like to be in control and are often limited by their #fixedmindset…
