There is a common trait among many high-achievers: Perfectionism. Celebrated geniuses like Leonardo Da Vinci, Beethoven, Steve Jobs and even Kanye West share an obsessive commitment towards excellence. 
The pursuit of excellence does have its pitfalls, and perfectionism does have the tendency to mutate into a constant striving for increasingly unrealistic goals, leading to frustration, anxiety, and a decrease in one’s productivity.

Perfectionism: The Pursuit Of Constant Excellence

<ul>
<li>One’s achievement is closely related to the Striving (positive) aspect of perfectionism, where mastery of the task and learnings is kept in focus.</li>
<li>If one is unable to achieve their goals, it is often related to the Concern (negative) aspect of perfectionism, where the focus is ego, competition, defensiveness, and avoidance of failure.</li>
</ul>

Goal Orientation

The darker side of perfectionism is a form of psychopathology which has been linked to many psychological problems like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), chronic anxiety, eating disorders and even suicide.
Other factors of the bad side of perfectionism are loneliness, depression, low self-esteem and lack of life satisfaction.

Perfectionism: The Ugly

The good aspects of being perfect are intrinsic motivation, extreme focus, ambitious goals, strong work ethic and high personal standards. They are also highly coachable.
 Elite performers are often perfectionists as their activity requires error-free performance.

Perfectionism: The Good

Perfectionism is self-abuse of the highest order.

Self-criticism and a focus on eliminating errors impairs one’s performance by disrupting the natural ability to demonstrate the learned skills. This leads to a vicious circle where there is a loss of confidence and further critical analysis of one’s diminishing performance.
This leads to training inefficiency and even burnout.

Perfectionism: The Bad

The Perfectionism and performance relationship has two basic dimensions:
<ol>
<li>Striving For Perfection: When one is geared towards high personal standards and ambitious goals. This is a positive mental state.</li>
<li>Concern for Perfection: When one is focused on the perceived gap between expectation and actual performance, and dwells over the mistakes, making it a negative mental state.</li>
</ol>

Two-Faced Nature Of Perfectionism

Looking for perfection is the only way to motivate yourself.

The maxim ‘Nothing but perfection’ may be spelt 'Paralysis'.

Top Strategies for dealing with perfection paralysis and achieving your biggest goals

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Managing Perfectionism

Dr. Dave Schroerlucke teaches the attitudes, habits, and mental skills that promote optimal performance in competitive, high-stakes environments.

Understand yourself and those around you.

ANNE WILSON SCHAEF

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Kinds of Perfectionism

Positive and destructive perfectionism

Perfectionism: The Ugly