Your Views of Perfectionism and How They Affect Your Life 

Are you a perfectionist? There’s nothing wrong with wanting things in your life just so, 
wanting things beautiful, wanting everything done right, and wanting to work hard to 
achieve great goals. However, there is no such thing as perfect, which is what so many 
people forget. You can’t have a perfect home or a perfect life or do a job perfectly. 
Mistakes are made, flaws are present, and every day is not perfect. If your 
perfectionism is severe, it might have a negative effect on your mental health. Do you 
think your desire to have everything perfect all the time is hindering your ability to live a 
good life? 

High Standards and Reality 

Set high standards for yourself in every area of your life. You don’t want low standards 
to live by, but you cannot set high standards and expect perfectionism from each of 
them. There will never be a perfect job or a perfect mate. You will never look perfect or 
behave perfectly, and nothing will ever happen perfectly. Set high standards, and learn 
how to re-evaluate them as needed to allow for small imperfections. 

Pressure and Perfectionism 

Your high standards are not your problem, but it’s your perception of reality that is a 
problem. If you believe you cannot go through life if things are not just so, done this 
way, or appear that way, you are putting too much pressure on yourself. For example, if 
you cannot leave your home without everything being put away and all things looking 
perfectly clean, you might put a lot of pressure on yourself if you’re already running late 
when you realize you need to clean up behind your kids. 

Now you’re late for work, your kids are late for school, and what did you get out of this? 
A clean house is what you got, but is that worth the detention your kids must now attend 
or the reprimand your boss issued when you rushed into the office 10 minutes late for a 
meeting? 

If you put pressure on yourself to achieve perfection, you’re going to get perfection. 
Unfortunately, you’re going to get perfection in only the area on which you’re focused. 
The rest of your life is going to fall apart.

Mental Health and Perfectionism 

You’ll drive yourself crazy if you want things perfect and don’t allow any room for 
mistakes. You do want things to be perfect, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You 
must simply allow yourself to understand that there will be things that prevent 
perfection. Until you understand that, you might just suffer from depression, anxiety, 
stress, and even health issues that affect your physical body, your emotional health, 
and even the relationships you have with the people you love. 

It’s not easy to give up the idea that perfection does exist, but you cannot live like this if 
you want to maintain a happy and well-balanced lifestyle. You cannot live this way if you 
want to be healthy. It’s time to face your fears and learn what makes you feel this way, 
fix the problem, and learn to talk yourself out of being perfect all the time.

