Self Esteem
How to Recognize and Overcome Perfectionism
Perfectionism will undermine your self-confidence like nothing else. Trying to maintain a facade of perfection all the time and holding yourself to unachievable standards is exhausting; I know, I’ve tried. But before you can do anything about perfectionism, you need to be able to recognize it.
Here are some clues that you might be suffering from perfectionism:
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A deep fear of failure, and sense of devastation when it happens
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Getting upset when you don’t win all the time
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Feeling ashamed of your thoughts and emotions
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Holding back on expressing how you really feel
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Fear of what others might think of you
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A sense of self-consciousness
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Using sarcasm or passive aggression when relating to others
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Communicating non-assertively
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Being driven to high achievement all the time-to-time
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Difficulty relaxing
Any of this sound familiar?
Ok, so now we can see the problem, here are two different ways of looking at it:
- You’re not perfect, and never will be. Neither is anyone else. Pretending to be perfect when you’re really not is living a lie. It cuts you off from relating deeply to other people, because they can’t relate to your facade of invulnerability. As a result, you sometimes come across as distant or aloof.