Perfectionism: A Double-Edged Sword
Perfectionism is a quality, but in the right amount.
I’m not sure if it’s a syndrome that affects everyone, but certainly some are more susceptible than others, and yet perfectionism is a rather widespread theme.
Considered a quality in the right amount, when you say that someone is attentive and precise. However, it is a double-edged sword, capable of turning into a limitation, a cage, when it manifests in excess.
As a child, I practiced rhythmic gymnastics for many years. Rhythmic gymnastics is a fascinating sport that requires a tremendous amount of control over one’s body — to perform jumps, spins, balances — and the handling of various apparatus (ball, rope, hoop, ribbon, and clubs).
I was only six years old when I started practicing this sport regularly. I spent eight years, until the beginning of high school, training three times a week. Apart from physical preparation and body work, handling the apparatus was the part that occupied a significant portion of the training.
The culture of effort and dedication is fundamental to the success of this sport, as it is in all sports when practiced competitively.
I spent hours and hours practicing throwing the hoop or the ball up and catching it. Most of the time, during the toss, gymnastics had to perform some skill: a somersault on the floor, or catching the apparatus without using my hands.
Rhythmic gymnastics is a beautiful sport that teaches the importance of effort and requires high levels of perfectionism. If a gymnast in the gym lacked such qualities, they worked on them day after day, toss after toss.
If frustration and boredom eventually took over, the girl would eventually quit. But in the competitive phase, such cases were quite rare. The team spirit and the example of our teammates were strong catalysts that kept us girls united and pushed us to do better every day.
So far, everything seems perfect, don’t you think? Perfect, indeed.
I often find myself using this word, you know. The house must be orderly, clean, and well-decorated. My appearance, without a doubt, must be well-groomed and impeccable. The clothes to wear. My daughter’s behaviour. The arrangement of things in the house, in the kitchen, the laundry basket. That task I am expected to deliver at work. In everything that surrounds me, I try every day to find that perfection that was instilled in me as a child.
To some of you, this may seem understandable, even commendable. To me, it sometimes simply feels exasperating. Exasperating. It seems like the reflection of a mind that can’t stop seeking perfection at all costs. A tremendous effort.
Well, thinking about it, perfectionism seems to me to be a double-edged sword in its own way: on one hand, it allows you to excel in achieving your goals, but on the other, it generates a continuous feeling of self-demand that can, in the long run, lead to frustration and even suffering.
And I’m only talking about perfectionism as an inner drive. I’m not even mentioning the standards often imposed on us from the outside, the images of flawless bodies presented by social networks. The community can turn into a network of stimuli that accentuate our tendency to pursue perfection, in this case based on comparison.
In conclusion, my suggestion is to practice conscious perfectionism. One that doesn’t turn into a trap capable of generating only frustration, but is a tool or abilities to achieve quality results, to reach our professional and personal goals, without allowing ourselves to be consumed by constant frustration toward an unattainable result.
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