Por Juan Diego Pereira Fernández – Education degree student
Perfectionism is a trait that makes life an endless report card on accomplishments or looks (Psychology Today, s.f). Many people in the world suffer from this condition; it is not easy to have it in this society because the interaction with others makes it hard to carry this condition. Perfectionism has increased by 30% in the people of the world. Perfectionism is related to compulsive activities, but not at large scales. It causes people to have a certain order in their lives but affects them at a certain point in a negative way.
People with perfectionism suffer from a lot of stress and they get angry very easily. Many causes lead to people to be like this. Perfectionism is driven primarily by internal pressures, such as the desire to avoid failure or severe judgment. There is probably also a social component because the tendencies of perfectionism have increased due to the society in which we live, people increasingly want to show that they are perfect either in social networks, at work, with their friends and family, among many others. People find it easy to judge others and this what generates insecurity, and, for that reason, they try to prove things that they are not, and it becomes as an obsession that everything need to be perfect (Psychology Today. s.f).
Perfectionism causes many problems in people's lives. For example, when a person with this condition goes to work in the mornings, they have to prepare their breakfast correctly, all their food need to be perfect on their plate. Not only in this but in other things, they also have to leave everything perfect. This is what causes people to be late at work. This condition makes people to get more tired in their day-to-day lives, this is because not everything is perfect in their jobs and there are people who do not mind doing things in perfect condition and this makes people with perfectionism to do more work than they should, this is one reason why they suffer from fatigue.
A bad habit of people with perfectionism is when they compare themselves to someone else; they may feel good for a while. People begin to think good things about themselves, for example, that they are in better shape or are having a better social life than others are, but this does not last forever. People start comparing themselves in a bad way, for example, they start to say that they earn less money than their friends, that their car is not as new as the car of his coworker and so among many other things, all this generates in people insecurities, and they are not good (Edberg, H. 2017).
“Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”
― William Faulkner
What this quote tries to tell us is that we have to overcome ourselves more than we can but not think of other people. Thinking about other people to overcome is good because people works harder to achieve more than others, but this can lead to serious problems in a person, such as depression. We must overcome ourselves and think of ourselves, because, in a moment, even if we do not want to, we will think of others and this is going to be a problem for our mental health. Perfectionism is good in a way, but it is also bad. For example, to keep things in order is very good, but being compulsive in perfectionism can cause serious damage to a person.
Perfectionism, as we could see, is a very serious problem that affects many people in their day to day. It is a condition with positive things, but it turns in a very serious problem that leads people to have mental illnesses and even to lose their family or friends. All people must have a bit of perfectionism in their lives, but not to great magnitudes. It should be normalized in jobs and homes that there are people with perfectionism, because in this way people will create awareness and will make people do not have to do extra work, and treat them in a way that should not be. We must overcome ourselves, and not think of others to do well, we are very important, and we have to show who we are.
MOXIE es el Canal de ULACIT (www.ulacit.ac.cr), producido por y para los estudiantes universitarios, en alianza con el medio periodístico independiente Delfino.cr, con el propósito de brindarles un espacio para generar y difundir sus ideas. Se llama Moxie - que en inglés urbano significa tener la capacidad de enfrentar las dificultades con inteligencia, audacia y valentía - en honor a nuestros alumnos, cuyo “moxie” los caracteriza.
