Perfectionism

Imagine that you are a first-year college student and you have a 20 page term paper due tomorrow at noon. It is nearing midnight, but for some reason all you’ve managed to do is write your name into a word document. You’ve done all the research necessary for your paper and even formulated an elaborate outline in your head, but you just can’t figure out how to begin. You say to yourself, “I’m not knowledgeable enough about this subject! I need to brainstorm more before I start.” Before long, you find a way to convince yourself that your paper is going to be a complete failure. So instead of writing a rough draft and at least making progress one step at a time, you put it off. You wait for the perfect moment to start, and there’s always that “something” that’s standing in the way. That “something” could be doing your laundry, cleaning your room, exercising, or just plain wasting time. This particular night, your “something” is watching the entire first season of Game of Thrones again until late in the morning. By the time you finally come to your senses and realize you’re in a tight squeeze, it’s already too late. You end up turning in a paper that isn’t even close to your standards.

This sort of behavior is often identified as procrastination. Students who procrastinate are often looked upon as lazy. However, for many procrastinators, there is an underlying factor that drives their behavior—perfectionism. Perfectionists are commonly only seen as ambitious, high-achieving individuals who are always on top of things. In reality, this is not the case—a more accurate definition of perfectionism is that it’s a set of specific mindsets, not a set of behaviors. There are actually even different kinds of perfectionist tendencies. In Is Pe...

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...s that they are only human, they can begin to take the steps laid out by psychology.

My research on the dangers of perfectionist thinking in academic endeavors revealed that there are two distinct types of perfectionist thinking, adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism. Those with maladaptive perfectionism will have unrealistic expectations of themselves and react to situations of failure by putting off papers and essays further. The procrastination associated with maladaptive perfectionism is present in groups varying from graduate students to high achieving professionals. Those with a high level of perfectionism may also think of themselves in a negative light. In short, perfectionism can often be thought of as a tempting path to follow, but in reality perfectionism can lead down a road of misery and procrastination that can prevent students from achieving success.