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Good Enough - Character Lab

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As someone who has researched perfectionism for over a decade, I’m asked this question a lot. And I used to think that was true. It’s hard to succeed nowadays. You’ve got to sacrifice yourself, keep pushing well beyond comfort, and live life on your tiptoes. That’s just the zero-sum nature in a lopsided society where there are only a few winners, I believed. Yet, research finds that perfectionism has no relationship with performance. Perfectionistic people strive really hard, but they’re no more likely to be successful. One reason is that perfectionistic people work hard but unsustainably so. They often find themselves in the sapping zone of diminishing and inverse returns to their efforts. Another is that many perfectionists are world champions at self-sabotage. When things get tough, when it looks like failure is heading their way, the anticipated shame and embarrassment are so fierce that perfectionistic people are reluctant to put forth any further effort that might allow others to

Today, I’ve asked Thomas Curran to share his Tip of the Week. “To get ahead in this world, don’t we need a little bit of perfectionism?” As someone who has researched perfectionism for over a decade, I’m asked this question a lot. And I used to think that was true. It’s hard to succeed nowadays. You’ve got to sacrifice yourself, keep pushing well beyond comfort, and live life on your tiptoes. That’s just the zero-sum nature in a lopsided society where there are only a few winners, I believed. Yet, research finds that perfectionism has no relationship with performance. Perfectionistic people st

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