The only quote I have listed on my Facebook profile is, “Ce qui mérite d’être fait mérite d’être bien fait,” which translates to, “That which is worth doing is worth doing well.” Obviously, the spirit behind this quote is to inspire me to strive for excellence, which is an good thing; however, this philosophy has also lead me into the traps set by perfectionism:
- Inaction: “If I can’t do it well, I won’t do it at all.”
- Taking on too much: “No one else can live up to my standards, so I’ll do it all myself.”
- Inadequacy: “What I did wasn’t perfect, so it wasn’t good enough.”
- Criticism: “What you did wasn’t perfect, so it wasn’t good enough.”
If this sounds familiar, I recently wrote an article over at Inner Fire about overcoming perfectionism: The Perfectionist’s Guide To Moderation. (No comment on how long it took me to decide whether the apostrophe fit better before or after the s.)
For more on perfectionism, here’s a post I wrote three years ago around the quote “Sometimes we strive so hard for perfection that we forget that imperfection is happiness.”