Perfectionism... Is it holding us back?

In Tanya Curtis’ clinical practice at Fabic, she has observed that ‘perfectionism’ is negatively impacting upon people of all ages: children, teenagers and adults.
Tanya has observed that people’s need to be perfect is resulting in increased anxiety; which is greatly reducing the quality of their day-to-day lives.
In-fact, Tanya goes so far as to say that perfectionism is an unrecognised epidemic that is crippling humanity as it is holding many people back from reaching their full potential.

What is perfectionism?

Perfectionism will look different for every person. Overall, perfectionism is a self-developed rule that people impose on either themselves and/or other people.

Perfectionism is an expectation that you or another person should DO things perfectly.

Some examples of perfectionism include:

  • Work life
  • Employees becoming uncomfortable when they have made a mistake, need to ask for help, acknowledge their weaknesses or receive a correction of any sort.
  • A school student shutting down when feedback has been provided or they may rip up school work, run out of the room or simply refuse to even start a task.
  • Partners feeling rejected when they are offered suggestions of how they could do something differently.
  • Parents feeling anxious when they feel judged as a ‘bad parent’ from another person when in public.
  • People struggling when they lose, do not come first or receive feedback of any sort.
  • Feeling angry or upset when a person does not do exactly what they have said they are going to do.
  • Becoming upset when rules are not followed ‘exactly’ the way the rules have been described. Some go far as to constantly tell other people how they ‘should’ be doing things.
  • People choosing not to try, to ensure that they don’t actually make a mistake at all.
  • People feeling disheartened, even crushed, when they get 9 out of 10 on an assessment piece.
  • People not being able to acknowledge when they are wrong or may find it hard to say sorry or congratulations to another person who has ‘done’ well.
  • People needing their clothes, house, hair, makeup to look ‘exactly right’.
  • Not being able to make a choice, as the choice may end up being a ‘wrong’ choice.
  • People choosing to fail, as failure is then within their control as it is guaranteed.
The list is endless, but as you can see from the examples mentioned above, the pressure of needing to be perfect is negatively impacting upon us all.

The worse thing is … perfectionism as a rule is guaranteeing failure, as perfectionism is actually impossible! As a result, perfectionism has the potential to impact on all parts of our lives including our relationship with ourselves and with all other people!

So why is this epidemic largely not being discussed?

Let’s start this conversation!

This workshop will present:

  • An understanding of both anxiety and perfectionism
  • The difference between care and attention to detail and the pressure of perfectionism
  • The cycle of ‘doing’ in intent of ‘doing perfectly’ and how this is affecting:
    • Our own lives
    • Our experiences with other people
  • Practical take home techniques that will support participants to combat perfectionism
  • Embracing our imperfections while equally embracing our qualities

For more information download the PDF flyer

Book this workshop for your organisation

Fabic workshops are designed to be delivered online or in person at your location.
Please request a quote or contact Fabic for further information.

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