Am I A Perfectionist?

Perfectionist thinking can derail us, stop us from moving forward, pressing send, sharing our work or not asking for that promotion. Although it affects all of us, it’s more prevalent in women since as children we were taught to be perfect while boys were told to be brave. 

So how can we identity our own perfectionist habits? Here are some examples of the type of perfectionist thinking that could be showing up for you: 

• Avoiding judgement by keeping small, not taking risks 

• Getting overly detailed or on the weeds with your work 

• Making safe choices and staying in your comfort zone 

• Putting pressure on yourself and others to work hard 

• Taking criticism of your work as a personal attack 

• Seeking approval of others to build confidence

• Being overall self-critical, limiting your self-confidence

• Feeling you are not worthy or not deserving 

• Black and white thinking or decision-making, ie “I’ll never get another chance” or “that is the wrong way” 

• Focusing on the negative, hearing 9 great things and only focusing on the 1 negative thing 

• Feelings of regret, thinking “I should have thought of that”, “I shouldn’t have done x”