Quotes & Sayings About Perfectionism

Perfectionism attaches to what is valued in the culture. — Gloria Steinem

I have to say that I've always believed perfectionism is more of a disease than a quality. I do try to go with the flow but I can't let go. — Rowan Atkinson

Perfectionism, of course, was something which even as a young man he had come to see as the innermost essence of talent. — Thomas Mann

Perfectionism kills art. I find that if I criticise myself, it spoils the fun. You can get paralysed by analysis - it takes all the playfulness away. — Geri Halliwell

Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth. Perfectionism is the belief that if we live perfect, look perfect, and act perfect, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgment, and shame. — Brene Brown

I'm a perfectionist; I'll work until I drop. — Michael Jackson

Stay away from thoughts of perfectionism; don't turn this opportunity into a chore. — Erin Ramsey

They cramp around our wounds - the pain from our childhood, the losses and disappointments of adulthood, the humiliations suffered in both - to keep us from getting hurt in the same place again, to keep foreign substances out. So those wounds never have a chance to heal. Perfectionism is one way our muscles cramp. In some cases we don't even know that the wounds and the cramping are there, but both limit us. — Anne Lamott

However, don't let perfectionism become an excuse for never getting started. — Marilu Henner

But you have to remind yourself that perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor. — Anne Lamott

Some people become hypercritical when stressed.
Then again, he hadn't been stressed last week. She giggled, remembering how he'd instructed her on the proper way to fold hand towels. Talk about nitpicky. Perhaps this would be a good time to call it quits. — Cherise Sinclair

The drive for perfectionism is a corrosive waste of time, because nothing is ever beyond criticism. No — Elizabeth Gilbert

Alexander was in the grip of a passion for perfection. He was not aware of how closely, how perilously, perfectionism and fanaticism are related. — Tove Jansson

Perfectionism has nothing to do with getting it right. It has nothing to do with fixing things. It has nothing to do with standards. Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move forward. It is a loop-an obsessive, debilitating closed system that causes you to get stuck in the details of what you are writing or painting or making and to lose sight of the whole. — Julia Cameron

Intense pain often pushed me to make changes. The pain of the eating disorder pushed me into recovering from eating-disordered behaviors, and then the emotional turmoil I experienced without those behaviors (not knowing how to cope with perfectionism, feelings, and life in general) took me even further, so that I ultimately found serenity. — Jenni Schaefer

Perfectionism never happens in a vacuum. It touches everyone around us. We pass it down to our children, we infect our workplace with impossible expectations, and it's suffocating for our friends and families. Thankfully, compassion also spreads quickly. When we're kind to ourselves, we create a reservoir of compassion that we can extend to others. — Brene Brown

Perfectionism is a dangerous state of mind in an imperfect world. The best way is to forget doubts and set about the task in hand ... If you are doing your best, you will not have time to worry about failure. — Robert Hillyer

Oxford was in love with the idea of Christian perfection. — Philip Zaleski

Annabel, one of my clients who cherished her perfectionism because she felt that it made her a fine writer and an excellent mother, was having a hard time with some of David Burns's teachings against perfectionism in his book, Feeling Good. Dr. Burns, she thought, told her to give up all ideal goals and stick only to realistic and average ones. Then she couldn't be disappointed or depressed. — Albert Ellis

Life is not that tough if you have a perfectionist sub-ordinate; life is a bit tough when you have a perfectionist peer; life is toughest when you have a perfectionist supervisor! — Abhishek Ratna

Directing is a mixture of compromise and perfectionism. When you lose the judgment of which is more important at any particular moment, you're time is over. They find you out and send you packing. — Danny Boyle

The grandest seduction of all is the myth that DOING EVERYTHING BETTER gets us where we want to be. It gets us somewhere, certainly, but not anywhere worth being. — Shauna Niequist

Whatever happens, there are always things you could have done better. You score two goals and you usually feel you could have done better. You score two goals and you usually feel you could have scored a third. That's perfectionism. That's what makes you progress in life. — Eric Cantona

Twenty centuries later, Jesus speaks pointedly to the preening ascetic trapped in the fatal narcissism of spiritual perfectionism, to those of us caught up in boasting about our victories in the vineyard, to those of us fretting and flapping about our human weaknesses and character defects. The child doesn't have to struggle to get himself in a good position for having a relationship with God; he doesn't have to craft ingenious ways of explaining his position to Jesus; he doesn't have to create a pretty face for himself; he doesn't have to achieve any state of spiritual feeling or intellectual understanding. All he has to do is happily accept the cookies, the gift of the kingdom.4 — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

When it comes to women, our perfectionism gives us a lot of grief. Women want to be super moms, super partners and super performers at work - and all at the same time. That's stressful. — Kristina Schroder

At some point, you really just have to finish your work and release it as is-if only so you can go on and make other things with a glad and determined heart. — Elizabeth Gilbert

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

Perfectionism is not the path that leads us to our gifts and to our sense of purpose; it's the hazardous detour. — Brene Brown

Self-love is not the process of ignoring things, paying attention to fewer flaws or forcing yourself to look away from the parts of you that you perceive as ugly or unwanted. Self-love is the process of expanding your awareness, of seeing those flaws and imperfections alongside the incredible potential of the universe flowing within you, alongside the eternal truth of life flowing within your veins in each second, alongside the flickers of creativity and opportunity present within each moment of your existence. Like this, the imperfections persist, but only as lovable quirks, like a bad doorknob on the front door of a cottage in paradise, like a few thorns on a beautiful rose, like a cloud in a sunset. Like this, what was once unwanted becomes essential, memorable, humbling. — Vironika Tugaleva

Perfectionism means that you try not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived. — Anne Lamott

TEN GUIDEPOSTS FOR WHOLEHEARTED LIVING 1. Cultivating authenticity: letting go of what people think 2. Cultivating self-compassion: letting go of perfectionism 3. Cultivating a resilient spirit: letting go of numbing and powerlessness 4. Cultivating gratitude and joy: letting go of scarcity and fear of the dark 5. Cultivating intuition and trusting faith: letting go of the need for certainty 6. Cultivating creativity: letting go of comparison 7. Cultivating play and rest: letting go of exhaustion as a status symbol and productivity as self-worth 8. Cultivating calm and stillness: letting go of anxiety as a lifestyle 9. Cultivating meaningful work: letting go of self-doubt and "supposed to" 10. Cultivating laughter, song, and dance: letting go of being cool and "always in control — Brene Brown

Perfectionism is not the same thing has striving to be your best. Perfectionism is the belief that if we live perfect, look perfect, and act perfect, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgement, and shame. It's a shield. It's a twenty-ton shield that we lug around thinking it will protect us when, in fact, it's the thing that's really preventing us from flight. — Brene Brown

If it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly. (on not perfectionism to put things off) . — Gilbert K. Chesterton

I don't know who started this thing about being perfect but the sooner we ditch that idea the happier we all will be! — Alastair Arnott

Intuitionism is not constructive, perfectionism is unacceptable. — John Rawls

Once the notion of perfectionism is abolished, persistence is allowed its rightful place in guiding us in achieving our goals. — Carla Birnberg

The fear of failure, the fear of being imperfect (perfectionism), and the fear of impossible expectations (being overwhelmed) that prevent us from acting on and attaining humanly possible goals and relationships. — Neil A. Fiore

At times failure is very necessary for the artist. It reminds him that failure is not the ultimate disaster. And this reminder liberates him from the mean fussing of perfectionism. — John Berger

Perfectionism doesn't believe in practice shots. It doesn't believe in improvement. Perfectionism has never heard that anything worth doing is worth doing badly
and that if we allow ourselves to do something badly we might in time become quite good at it. Perfectionism measures our beginner's work against the finished work of masters. Perfectionism thrives on comparison and competition. It doesn't know how to say, "Good try," or "Job well done." The critic does not believe in creative glee
or any glee at all, for that matter. No, perfectionism is a serious matter. — Julia Cameron

So go marry someone, provided you're equally yoked and you actually like being with each other. Go get a job, provided it's not wicked. Go live somewhere in something with somebody or nobody. But put aside the passivity and the quest for complete fulfillment and the perfectionism and the preoccupation with the future, and for God's sake start making some decisions in your life. Don't wait for the liver-shiver. If you are seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, you will be in God's will, so just go out and do something. — Kevin DeYoung

But I always feel that whatever I do, I could do better. I suppose it is perfectionism. — Rowan Atkinson

Perfectionism is the enemy of the idea muscle. Perfectionism is your brain trying to protect you from harm - from coming up with an idea that is embarrassing and stupid and could cause you to suffer pain. — James Altucher

Our lack of focus is our primary problem and the source of many of our difficulties, like procrastination, trouble setting priorities, trouble dealing with time, trouble finishing projects, perfectionism, and the inevitable demoralization. — Douglas A. Puryear

In order to go on living one must try to escape the death involved in perfectionism. — Hannah Arendt

Like the bronze statue of the Angel of the Waters, those who pursue perfection find themselves paralysed by the possibility of flaw, fault or failure. — Jamie Le Fay

perfectionism is the need to be right instead of being liked — Ira Glass

Perfect is the enemy of done. — Catherine Carrigan

Replace perfectionism with persistence. After all, in recovery and life, it's persistence that really pays off. Forget about perfection. — Jenni Schaefer

Good enough is good enough. Perfect will make you a big fat mess every time. — Rebecca Wells

There are too many people who love me, and accept me, and never try and change me, and who don't condemn me in the slightest, for me to waste even one moment of my life anymore worrying about what other people will think. — Dan Pearce

No number of compliments will convince her of anything, and one of Jacob's projects in their marriage is to wean her off perfectionism. — Maggie Shipstead

These 'mistakes' occur in my books for a reason. I have an agenda: I'm secretly trying to inspire kids to create their own stories and comics, and I don't want them to feel stifled by 'perfectionism.' — Dav Pilkey

When people undermine your values, they've strong reasons. For example, they mistaken your passion for excellence as perfectionism... — Assegid Habtewold

The fear of making mistakes and not doing a particular ministry well has paralyzed many believers, and that is a tragedy. They fail to see that perfectionism is religion (form without power). Excellence is Kingdom. Saying yes to the King is the first step in discipleship. And being driven by love makes it impossible to remain stationary. — Bill Johnson

We're wired for story. In a culture of scarcity and perfectionism, there's a surprisingly simple reason we want to own, integrate, and share our stories of struggle. We do this because we feel the most alive when we're connecting with others and being brave with our stories - it's in our biology. — Brene Brown

Again, after years of research, I'm convinced that we all numb and take the edge off. The question is, does our _ (eating, drinking, spending, gambling, saving the world, incessant gossiping, perfectionism, sixty-hour workweek) get in the way of our authenticity? Does it stop us from being emotionally honest and setting boundaries and feeling like we're enough? Does it keep us from staying out of judgment and from feeling connected? Are we using _ to hide or escape from the reality of our lives? Understanding — Brene Brown

It's what I call the haute couture, high-end version of fear perfectionism. It's just fear in really good shoes. But it's still fear. — Elizabeth Gilbert

The fastest way to break the cycle of perfectionism and become a fearless mother is to give up the idea of doing it perfectly - indeed to embrace uncertainty and imperfection. — Arianna Huffington

My friend Annabel calls it "Reverse Perfectionism" - if a man thinks he can't do something perfectly, he'd rather not do it at all ... — Shelli NT

[Judith Warner:] Our neurotic quest to perfect the mechanics of mothering can be interpreted as an effort to do on an individual level what we've stopped trying to do on a society-wide one. — Emily Matchar

Sometimes it's hard to know when you've crossed the line from conscientious to compulsive. When you're in the thick of an assignment, it's easy to believe that you must spend so much time brainstorming, researching, writing, testing, revising or what-have-you. Often, it's only after you've been working for hours on end that you realize that half the work you've been doing wasn't actually necessary and that you've just wasted a lot of time. — Michael Law

The myth of self-sufficiency demands optimism without end, downplays life's challenges, and shames us when, inevitably, we fall short. — Ashton Applewhite

Perfectionism is the enemy of profitability. — Mark Cuban

To be a learner, you've got to be willing to be a fool. — George Leonard

It's like a lot of things, said the smith. Do the least part of it wrong and ye'd just as well to do it all wrong. — Cormac McCarthy

Regret is just perfectionism plus time. — B.J. Novak

On this sacred path of Radical Acceptance, rather than striving for perfection, we discover how to love ourselves into wholeness. — Tara Brach

Be Positive in Life we All have Problems solve them with a Smile and Go on with Our Future, nobody is Perfect and also Nothing is in Perfection. — Jan Jansen

Perfectionism doesn't make you feel perfect. It makes you feel inadequate. — Maria Shriver

Alert to the manipulations and machinations of Pharisaical self-righteousness, ragamuffins refuse to surrender control of their lives to rules and regulations. They see that the stale religiosity of legalists, trapped in the fatal narcissism of spiritual perfectionism, obscures the face of the God of Jesus. — Brennan Manning

I think perfectionism is just a high-end, haute couture version of fear. — Elizabeth Gilbert

Fuck you perfectionism. Without you, I am brilliant. — Coco J. Ginger

Perfection is not to be attained, but to be pursued infinitely. — Abhijit Naskar

Perfectionism is an ugly habit until you get results. — Bryan Way

Perfectionism is searching for faults to justify low self-esteem. It is a guaranteed failure and fantasy. — Brittany Burgunder

Clinging to our ideas of perfection isolates us from life and is a barrier. — Sharon Salzberg

Perfectionism becomes a badge of honor with you playing the part of the suffering hero. — David D. Burns

If we want freedom from perfectionism, we have to make the long journey from "What will people think?" to "I am enough." That journey begins with shame resilience, self-compassion, and owning our stories. — Brene Brown

Understanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life. Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it's often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis. — Brene Brown

Perfectionism robs you of your freedom. — Steve Brown

Just doing as well as you did last time is not good enough. — Michael Jackson

I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. — Anne Lamott

I am continuously struck by how frequently the various thought processes of the inner critic trigger overwhelming emotional flashbacks. This is because the PTSD-derived inner critic weds shame and self-hate about imperfection to fear of abandonment, and mercilessly drive the psyche with the entwined serpents of perfectionism and endangerment. Recovering individuals must learn to recognize, confront and disidentify from the many inner critic processes that tumble them back in emotional time to the awful feelings of overwhelming fear, self-hate, hopelessness and self-disgust that were part and parcel of their original childhood abandonment. — Pete Walker

The onslaught of scruples is a problem well attested in the spiritual life, especially among the young, where religious observances must be done perfectly to achieve a certain result. — Philip Zaleski

perfectionism is sometimes the most dangerous set of thoughts you can let make their home in your head. — James Altucher

Ever feel like you're always winding up and never throwing it out? You might blame it on perfectionism or procrastination or preparation. You may even call it prudent. But whatever it is...IT'S NOT WORKING. I call this phenomenon "petrified performance." Where you're busy, busy, busy (on the wrong activities or the right activities for too long), and never accomplishing the idea or task you set out to do. You're stuck. Like a tree that once was lively is now dead and immovable like a stone. What once was a fluid idea is now frozen in time. How do you overcome petrified performance? With practice, silly. Everything you do should be considered a "project" because projects have a beginning and an end with a timeline. No more dreaming. Wake up and put those dreams to work by putting the steps necessary to make them happen on the calendar. Are you willing to practice? That's my prescription. — Richie Norton

Perfectionism is the counterfeit of excellence. Excellence is Kingdom, while perfectionism is religion. What ever you do, do it with all you might, and as unto the Lord. That is excellence. — Bill Johnson

In the end, perfection is just a concept - an impossibility we use to torture ourselves and that contradicts nature. — Guillermo Del Toro

You always try to be perfect, he says, and you always fall short, and it fucks with your head. Your confidence is shot, and perfectionism is the reason. — Anonymous

The wholesome pursuit of excellence feels quite different from perfectionism. — Sharon Salzberg

Our culture is obsessed with perfection, especially when it comes to the way women look. The parameters of acceptability as far as physical appearance go are so limiting that only a handful of women actually fall into this category. And the rest of us are left to either squeeze ourselves into molds that don't fit, hating ourselves all the while, or we just give up entirely. — Yancy Lael

There's really no way to be perfect. Perfectionism is a silly trait to have, so in a lot of ways that inspired the world of 'Divergent,' in which everyone is striving toward that ideal and falling short of it. — Veronica Roth

Many people think of perfectionism as striving to be your best, but it is not about self-improvement; it's about earning approval and acceptance. — Brene Brown

I picture the vast realm of the sciences as an immense landscape scattered with patches of dark and light. The goal towards which we must work is either to extend the boundaries of the patches of light, or to increase their number. One of these tasks falls to the creative genius; the other requires a sort of sagacity combined with perfectionism. — Denis Diderot

The culture of shame is driven by fear, blame and disconnection, and it is often a powerful incubator for issues like perfectionism, stereotyping, gossiping and addiction. — Brene Brown

If we demand perfection from ourselves we are not living in the real world ... The inherent problem in the relationship between the ideal & the real is that the ideal judges the real as unacceptable and brings down condemnation and wrath on the real. This sets up an adversarial relationship between the two and like all adversaries, they move further and further apart. — Henry Cloud

Perfectionism: the need to be right instead of being right. — Ira Glass

Perfectionism is a perpetual flight into an illusory future that cannot be attained. — Gary Zukav

90 percent perfect and shared with the world always changes more lives than 100 percent perfect and stuck in your head. — Jon Acuff

My kids look actually happy. And I learned early on that perfectionism and parenthood is a toxic combination for everybody involved. In other words, so many things can flourish naturally. All you gotta do is make sure the soil's right. I view myself more like a guide than a ruler. — Dave Chappelle