Years ago, I worked as a researcher in several clinical psychology labs, focusing mostly on the development and treatment of anxiety disorders. And I’ll never forget when I interviewed for one of these jobs, my soon-to-be-boss asked me “What’s your stance on perfectionism?”

My stance? Am I supposed to be pro or anti-perfectionism? I stumbled over my words as I tried to say something along the lines of “Umm, I try to do stuff well” before she mercifully cut me off.

She simply said: “I ask because I find that perfectionism causes more problems than benefits. For example, ‘perfect’ usually gets in the way of ‘great.’ And doing great research is our goal here, not perfect research.”

She surprised me when she said this, as I expected her to be a perfectionist since she had succeeded so much in her work. But, she didn’t let the idea of attaining perfection stop her from producing great work, and then moving on to do more great work. I learned so much from her, but this lesson has stuck with me the longest.

I say that because I struggle with perfectionism and accepting great work. Honestly, I even struggled with it as I founded this practice, down to every detail. I distinctly remember designing my practice’s logo, that little, teal, “ctp” logo which is at the top of each page on this website, and I spent over an hour designing that. It is a rectangle with three letters inside, and I remember literally adding individual pixels to the curves of the letters, then deleting those pixels, and then adding them back again.

Then, I remembered the words of my former boss: “Don’t let perfectionism stop you from doing great work.” In that moment, I was doing just that. I now recognize that perfectionism comes from an anxious place within us, a place that asks the question “Is ‘great’ good enough? Is someone else going to see your imperfect work and see that you’re a fraud?” Perfectionism can paralyze us with fear, and it is not a small or insignificant problem.

In the end, I had to accept my imperfect logo. If you look really closely, you’ll find awkward lines and curves on the letters, and perhaps it’s too small, or too big, I don’t really know. What is a perfect logo? As someone with very little artistic talent, I certainly wouldn’t know a perfect logo from a good one.

So, from one recovering perfectionist to another, I encourage you to not let perfect get in the way of great. And, recognize that you can recover from perfectionism as you learn to lessen and tame your anxious thoughts. Then, you can live a great life and you won’t miss your perfectionism one bit.

Thank you for reading my practice’s blog, my library of all the random thoughts that would make a terrible book but make a halfway-decent blog. To request a session or contact me, head to my Scheduling page to get in touch with me today!