Science and Sensibility

Great example, Bill. Thanks again for sharing this! In addition to your wonderful post, I think that a person procrastinates because of his fears that his future expectations might not be met. As a result his fears hinder him from achieving his goal, thus, causing a person to delay and to put off his tasks. I think a person has to be aware of his feelings to be able to find options for taking action in a situation. This would help a person feel more in control and less time to stress.

Wow, this article describes me to a T. I'm glad to hear I'm not alone in my perfectionism/procrastination.

One quibble, though: there are numerous typos in the article, which really undermined the message for me. Perhaps a quick spell-check is in order, especially in an article about perfectionism!

Great article. It was like reading an article about me it was so bang on.

Re:jojo, perhaps you should let it slide. The article is about breaking perfectionism not about perfectionism as a good and realistic trait.

This was a moderately helpful article.

I say "moderately" because the advice is useful only in terms of self-imposed expectations. But what about the (more common) circumstance where there really are external consequences from failing to perform to a certain standard? For example, if you don't do a good job on a report you will get a poor performance review, if you don't give a good presentation you may lose the account, etc. This is very stressful and "discomforting" but it's not the least bit irrational to be worried.

In these circumstances you would still want to keep from thinking that perfection is the only goal, but there is no incongruity - you can't say failure does not matter. THAT is when it really gets scary!

I am of the same mind as Jojo with the typos. I guess itnis the perfectionist in me. I enjoyed the article and saw myself in it, but the typos made me focus on those instead.