The meticulous pursuit to reach excellence
Filed Under (Self Improvement) by Deltrice on 13-12-2005
Tagged Under : perfectionism
There are seven steps in the treatment for perfectionism proposed by Burns:
(1) list advantages and disadvantages of striving to be perfect, which should encourage the person to give it up,
(2) rate the expected and then the actual satisfaction with several activities, which will show the person that he/she doesn’t have to be perfect to enjoy an activity,
(3) try for an entire day to rate many things as either perfect or not perfect, proving to the rater that the world isn’t black (imperfect) or white (perfect) although he/she may think that way,
(4) record for a day each self-critical thought and consider what would be a more reasonable and self-tolerant viewpoint,
(5) design an experiment to test the idea that people won’t respect you if you are not successful (actually many will like you better when you mess up occasionally and admit it),
(6) learn to handle criticism by role playing that situation (see chapter 13), and
(7) experiment with different standards, i.e. try for an “average” meal, a “below average” essay answer, a “poor” appearance one day and “a little above average” the next, etc. Bring a little variety into your life, not just perfect, perfect, perfect… Loosen up, it’s usually more relaxed and fun that way.
