Perfectionist at the Core

Perfectionist, a noun, someone who refuses to accept any standard short of perfection.

The word perfectionist was first documented in the mid-1600s and since then it has just continued to grow in terms of usage. In fact, it has exponentially grown since 1910, although it has plateaued off a bit since 2019. 

I will openly admit that I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist. I even use it as a negative when talking about myself in interviews. 

Sometimes being a perfectionist can be a good thing. It can mean that you do things right the first time and do not have to go back to correct yourself. It can mean that you are dedicated and willing to put in the thought to get things done the right way. And for most, it can give you a sense of accomplishment once you have finished the task.

But other times, being a perfectionist can be your downfall. It can mean that if you make a mistake you decide you need to scratch the entire endeavor and start from the beginning again. It can mean that you spend a lot of time on a remedial task that could have been done in 5 minutes because it did not require pinpoint accuracy. 

Sometimes you need to just breathe and take it for what it is. I think that is why we saw a decline in the use of perfectionist in 2019. I think people started to get overly frustrated and tried bettering themselves by acknowledging that not everything needs to be exactly perfect and that sometimes it is okay to make a mistake here or there. That making mistakes is a learning experience and that the only way to continue to get better is to have failures to learn from.

...

But then you get people who have to take on OCD and ADHD and there is just absolutely no possibility of accepting things for what they are because they are constantly moving and constantly wanting to make things work or behave in a certain manner and then they have to deal with being a perfectionist on top of that... it's like being a walking paradox.

Gotta love humans and their mentality, right?