Best Perfectionism Quotes

What if you wake up some day, and you’re 65… and you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life?

Ring the bells that still can ring.

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.

Healthy striving is self-focused: How can I improve? Perfectionism is other-focused: What will they think?

When perfectionism is driving us, shame is riding shotgun and fear is that annoying backseat driver!

Perfectionism is 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 taking flight.

Perfectionism is self destructive simply because there’s no such thing as perfect. Perfection is an unattainable goal.

Everything that these folks are saying that they’re trying to move away from, like comparison, perfectionism, judgement, and exhaustion as a status symbol – that all describes my life. It was more like a medical researcher studying a disease and figuring out he or she has it.

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.

Let go of who you think you’re supposed to be and embrace who you are.

I slowly realized that perfectionism just not that important. What’s more important is to try to love the people around you. Whatever that means at a particular time is the best you can do.

Perfectionism may look good in his shiny shoes, but he’s a little bit of an asshole and no one invites him to their pool parties.

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.

as you begin to eliminate your need for perfection in all areas of your life, you’ll begin to discover the perfection in life itself

Too many people spend too much time trying to perfect something before they actually do it. Instead of waiting for perfection, run with what you go, and fix it along the way.

I can relate to girls with self esteem issues because growing up in this industry there is the side of you that is obsessed with perfection. You want to please everyone because if you don’t, you won’t get the job. There is always someone prettier, smarter, or a better actor that you. You start to nit-pick everything. That perfectionism kicks in and it can take over your life if you let it. You have to get comfortable with yourself. Then, if you get the job, it is an added bonus.

Reaching for the stars, perfectionists may end up clutching air. They suffer from mood disorders, troubled relationships, and stress. They may even achieve less than others.

However, don’t let perfectionism become an excuse for never getting started.

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.

Perfectionism is not as much the desire for excellence, as it is the fear of failure couched in procrastination .

Perfectionism doesn’t make you feel perfect. It makes you feel inadequate.

Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make you a far happier and more productive person.

I love that, for Kanye [West], there’s no difference between the epic and the personal. That makes him sound like a really grandiose douche – which, I don’t think anyone, himself included, could contest – but at the same time, it’s really amazing. I love the scope of his perfectionism.

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.

Film industry is a pretty brutal business. If you fall too far behind, all of the perfectionism in the world won’t save you.

Perfectionism becomes a badge of honor with you playing the part of the suffering hero.

Perfectionism is the mother of procrastination.

The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light.

[perfectionism leads to] a tendency to apologize preemptively for one’s efforts, knowing from experience that there’s sure to be something wrong with them.

False notes [on the piano] are human. Why does everything have to be perfect? You know, perfection itself is imperfection.

Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull.

Sometimes you think that you need to be perfect, that you cannot make mistakes … realize you are a human being – like everyone else capable of reaching great potential but not capable of being perfect.

Perfectionism and optimalism are not distinct ways of being, an either-or choice, but rather they coexist in each person. And while we can move from perfectionism toward optimalism, we never fully leave perfectionism behind and never fully reach optimalism ahead. The optimalism ideal is not a distant shore to be reached but a distant star that guides us and can never be reached. As Carl Rogers pointed out, ‘The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination

Mastery requires endurance. Mastery, a word we don’t use often, is not the equivalent of what we might consider its cognate—perfectionism—an inhuman aim motivated by a concern with how others view us. Mastery is also not the same as success—an event-based victory based on a peak point, a punctuated moment in time. Mastery is not merely a commitment to a goal, but to a curved-line, constant pursuit.

Perfectionism is a dangerous state of mind in an imperfect world.