Signs You Might Be a Perfectionist

While living your life as a perfectionist, you may not realize the toll perfectionism can 
take on your physical and emotional well-being. The quest for personal perfection often 
leaves the perfectionist with internalized feelings of self-doubt, low self-esteem and fear. 
If you are a perfectionist, you may recognize these signs and symptoms.

You Perceive Everything in Black and White

For the perfectionist, the world is black and white. You see only two sides to everything, 
the right or wrong, good or bad. You take first place, or the competition is lost. There is 
no middle ground and grey areas are unacceptable. Because of this black and white 
belief system, anything less than perfection is a failure in your eyes. You fear that 
mistakes prove you unworthy.

You Have Unrealistic or Demanding Standards

If you are a perfectionist, you may feel an unhealthy sense of competition. The 
expectations and amount of pressure you put on yourself are not always reasonable. 
You may set unrealistic goals causing you to feel stressed, anxious and fearful of 
imagined failures lurking around the corner.

Rather than enjoying the journey or process of an activity, you focus only on the 
outcome. You play to win, but may shun activities when you feel that others could out-
perform you. You may also procrastinate projects when you fear that you may not excel.

You Are Highly Critical of Yourself and Others 

Perfectionist are often as critical of others as they are of themselves. You may find that 
you are intolerant of other people’s shortcomings. You may feel angry or resentful when 
other people fall short of your high expectations.
Since you may believe in only one right path to any goal, you may feel it necessary to 
do most tasks on your own, rather than trust, delegate or ask for assistance. You may 
also believe that asking for help is admitting failure.

You Believe You are not Enough on Your Own 

As a perfectionist, your self-esteem and your perceived value to others are proven by 
your most recent accomplishments. You may respond to this belief by setting your 
standards even higher and working even harder to accomplish more. You might 
wrongfully believe that your value in this world is reduced any by error or oversight.

These are a few examples of the beliefs and difficulties that haunt the perfectionist. 
Your quest for perfection does not need to continue. Recognizing some of your 
perfectionist tendencies could be your first step to creating more realistic expectations 
for yourself. You could begin living your life with less self-doubt and less self-induced 
stress when you allow yourself to be less than perfect.

