This Post Ain’t Perfect

“If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.” Y. Berra

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: (Don’t) Get Your Act Together

Competencies: stress management, coping skills, adaptability, achievement orientation

Who benefits: perfectionists

Consultant Usage: health counselors, EAP representatives, managers and supervisors in their coaching caps

What’s it about? For 30 year I have listened to my friend Terry Paulson (newest book: The Optimism Advantage) rant about the evils of the Three P’s: Perfection, Procrastination and Paralysis.  His message on the Three P’s is still relevant today.

He will be pleased to note that Psychology Today has recently offered up four very fine articles on the first “P” and how it can lead to the other two “P’s”.  The first of these is “Pitfalls of Perfectionism”.  The opening lines in this excellent article got my attention:  “Perfectionism may be the ultimate self-defeating behavior. It turns people into slaves of success—but keeps them focused on failure, dooming them to a lifetime of doubt and depression…. You could say that perfectionism is a crime against humanity. Adaptability is the characteristic that enables the species to survive—and if there’s one thing perfectionism does, it rigidifies behavior.”

In the second article, “The Perfect Trap”, is story oriented, easy to read. I was hooked when I saw a little bit of me in the story about Susan.  I was also intrigued by a paragraph on the differences between inwardly focused perfectionists and outwardly focused perfectionists that I had not considered before.  It got me thinking about some people I have known.  I also enjoyed this definition of the double-edged sword of perfectionism: “The reach for perfection can be painful because it is often driven by both a desire to do well and a fear of the consequences of not doing well.”

The third article is a more technically oriented article, “The Pernicious Perils of Perfectionism”.  While covering several areas, it has some interesting insights into the relationship between perfectionism and procrastination.

The same author also presents another technically oriented article that gives more depth to “The Perfect Trap” mentioned above. In “What flavor of perfectionist are you? It matters!” the author suggests three forms of perfectionism and the adaptive and maladaptive aspects of each.

One common theme running through all of the articles is the relationship between perfectionism and procrastination.  So if you are interested in either of these “P’s”, I strongly advise you to look at these links NOW!

Catch you later. 

[tags]perfectionism, procrastination, adaptability, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley[/tags]

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.