I wanted to leave my subject line as “…and I’m a perfectionist,” a la Alcoholics Anonymous or other similar recovery programs. However, I was afraid that at a glance it would come off really pompous – more like “I’m perfect” instead of “I’m a perfectionist.” So here we are.
Growing up, I feel like it was mostly pretty easy to be a perfectionist. My life was fairly simple, without too many moving parts, and no one of the parts was so complex that I couldn’t strive for something close to perfect. My perfectionist attitude served me well in many aspects of my life, resulting in a high level of success and enjoyment in school, sports, music, and other activities.
About the only major frustration I associate with my perfectionism growing up was the complete disconnect between my expectations and my abilities for art projects. I was and am a horrible artist, and I’m pretty sure I cried and whined enough to my mom that she usually helped me to make my projects look the way I want them. Lesson learned . . . or perhaps not learned, depending on which lesson I was supposed to be taught 🙂
As life went on and became more complex and less controllable, I had several experiences (read: borderline meltdowns) that made me realize I could either keep trying to control and perfect everything and die of a heart attack at age 40, or learn to choose my battles and hopefully be an overall happier and healthier person while still maintaining a high level of performance in my daily endeavors.
So again, here I am, in the process of learning to choose my battles and balance high precision with low stress. Actually, one large factor that led to my owning a Costco practice was trying to simplify my life so I wouldn’t go crazy trying to control too many things! As much as I try not to let my own personal brand of crazy affect those with whom I interact, I do occasionally struggle to know when to stop asking “Which is better – 1 or 2?” in pursuit of that most-perfect of all glasses prescriptions. Please just know that I’m aware of the potential panic attack I may induce within YOU, and I will try to ask only as many questions as I need to get a prescription I know you will like 🙂
Related articles
- Perfection or Perfectionistic? (psychologytoday.com)
- The battles of a perfectionist (livingordersablog.com)
- Nobody’s perfect… (missunderstoodgenius.wordpress.com)
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