S8E6 How to aim for progress not perfection

Are you a perfectionist? Perfectionism has significant negative health impacts. Learn how to keep it under control so that it remains in service to you rather than you becoming a slave to perfection.

https://www.strengthscope.com/how-to-aim-for-progress-not-perfection/

In a 2019 study of around 41,000 young people, researchers found that over the last 25 years, people across the US, Canada and the UK have become more perfectionistic in terms of: others having higher expectations of us, us having higher expectations of others, as well as us having higher expectations of ourselves. The rise of social media has been used to partly explain this effect and importantly, there are significant negative health outcomes associated with each form of perfectionism.

My name’s Dr Paul Brewerton, the strengths guy, Doctor of Psychology and Founder of Strengthscope. My podcasts land with you at the start of each week to get you off to the strongest possible start. I podcast about work, life and strengths and how you can get the most from each.

So what is perfectionism? Well I said in my intro that compared to a few decades ago, we now perceive that others have higher expectations of us, that we have higher expectations of others, and we have higher expectations of ourselves – that’s actually three types of perfectionism…socially-prescribed perfectionism, other-oriented perfectionism and self-oriented perfectionism – yikes!