Being a Perfectionist and Sweating the Small Stuff Can Be Bad For You

by Reuben Chow

Do you sweat the small stuff?

Are you a perfectionist even for the littlest, most insignificant and unimportant things?

You know, someone who will make sure his books are arranged immaculately by alphabetical order or by size; a person who will try his hardest to find out why there is a $0.05 discrepancy in his personal expenses statement; someone who rearranges, renames and re-categorizes the files in his computer hard disk dozens of times a year; a person who is not satisfied until the straight line she is trying to draw is absolutely straight; or someone who feels irked when his parking is a little slanted and would repeatedly adjust his car; this list can go on and on, really.

Basically, we’re talking about that nit-picky perfectionist and perhaps obsessive-compulsive streak – some people have it in abundance, while maybe all of us have such tendencies in varying degrees for different issues and circumstances.

After a while, such habits and tendencies can get tiring and drain you a little bit. It’s probably timely to ask yourself – is it worth it?

What difference does it make to get everything so perfectly in order? Does it make you a noticeably better person? Does it significantly improve your life or the lives of the people around you? Has the world been made a better place? Have you become a markedly better person?

Or, have you, in truth – and be honest with yourself here – become slave to habits and tendencies which burden you, hamper your ability to live life to the fullest, and negatively affect your overall quality of life? Have you become slave to habits and tendencies which you wished you did not have, but find them difficult to control? Are you addicted to these habits and tendencies?

Some honest soul searching is definitely needed here. It won’t be easy to kick such habits and tendencies, especially if you’ve had them for years, even decades. But it can be done, and recognizing that it is a problem and resolving that you do wish to change is a useful and crucial first step.

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