The Perfectionism Paradox

Self-criticism and a focus on eliminating errors impairs one’s performance by disrupting the natural ability to demonstrate the learned skills. This leads to a vicious circle where there is a loss of confidence and further critical analysis of one’s diminishing performance.

This leads to training inefficiency and even burnout.

The darker side of perfectionism is a form of psychopathology which has been linked to many psychological problems like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), chronic anxiety, eating disorders and even suicide.

Other factors of the bad side of perfectionism are loneliness, depression, low self-esteem and lack of life satisfaction.

The Perfectionism and performance relationship has two basic dimensions:

1. Striving For Perfection: When one is geared towards high personal standards and ambitious goals. This is a positive mental state.
2. Concern for Perfection: When one is focused on the perceived gap between expectation and actual performance, and dwells over the mistakes, making it a negative mental state.

• One’s achievement is closely related to the Striving (positive) aspect of perfectionism, where mastery of the task and learnings is kept in focus.
• If one is unable to achieve their goals, it is often related to the Concern (negative) aspect of perfectionism, where the focus is ego, competition, defensiveness, and avoidance of failure.