Top 100 Quotes About Perfectionism
#1. Perfectionism is a time waster - 20 percent of the effort you put into any project accomplishes 80 percent of the outcome - so this is a time to ask yourself when good enough is enough and then stop.
Mira Kirshenbaum
#2. There's going to be a demand for perfectionism on the part of Hillary Clinton, or any other pro-equality woman candidate, that would not be made of men. There are going to be attacks based on different standards of morality and different standards of dress and physical attractiveness.
Gloria Steinem
#4. Welcoming imperfection is the way to accomplish what perfectionism promises but never delivers. It gives us our best performance and genuine acceptance in the family of human
and by that I mean imperfect
beings.
Martha Beck
#5. There isn't anything you can't make run a little better, a little faster, a little smoother, if you take the time to analyse it and component-split the processes.
Alex Scarrow
#6. A wonderful pastor I know once told me, "Perfectionism is the highest order of self-abuse." So now I try to remind myself that if I engage in perfectionism, I am abusing myself. Period.
Ashley Judd
#7. Good enough is good enough. Perfect will make you a big fat mess every time.
Rebecca Wells
#8. When things are perfect, that's when you need to worry most.
Drew Barrymore
#9. Perfectionism is the enemy of profitability.
Mark Cuban
#10. Our lack of focus is our primary problem and the source of many of our difficulties, like procrastination, trouble setting priorities, trouble dealing with time, trouble finishing projects, perfectionism, and the inevitable demoralization.
Douglas A. Puryear
#11. We're wired for story. In a culture of scarcity and perfectionism, there's a surprisingly simple reason we want to own, integrate, and share our stories of struggle. We do this because we feel the most alive when we're connecting with others and being brave with our stories - it's in our biology.
Brene Brown
#12. The most successful are not the most perfect, but the imperfect who dare to believe that they can despite the damning verdict.
Bangambiki Habyarimana
#13. 90 percent perfect and shared with the world always changes more lives than 100 percent perfect and stuck in your head.
Jon Acuff
#14. But you have to remind yourself that perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.
Anne Lamott
#15. In extreme cases of perfectionism, there is no distinction between judgment of one's work and one's sense of value as a person.
Neil A. Fiore
#16. 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 ...
Paul Arden
#17. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die.
Anne Lamott
#18. Our whole lives, it was like we were always trying so hard to be perfect - for our families and our friends, for each other - when the funny thing was, we didn't have to. In the end, we were better than that.
Brenna Yovanoff
#19. When you strive for perfection, you compare different versions of what could be instead of being present with what is. Perfectionism is an attempt to inhabit an imaginary world in order to avoid experiencing the world in which you live.
Gary Zukav
#20. [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.
William Westney
#21. You always try to be perfect, he says, and you always fall short, and it fucks with your head. Your confidence is shot, and perfectionism is the reason.
Anonymous
#22. Perfectionism is not a prerequisite for anything but pain.
Danna Faulds
#23. Our teens are embedded in a culture driven by competition and perfectionism, where success is defined by status, performance and their appearance.
Auliq Ice
#24. Some people become hypercritical when stressed.
Then again, he hadn't been stressed last week. She giggled, remembering how he'd instructed her on the proper way to fold hand towels. Talk about nitpicky. Perhaps this would be a good time to call it quits.
Cherise Sinclair
#25. At its root, perfectionism isn't really about a deep love of being meticulous. It's about fear. Fear of making a mistake. Fear of disappointing others. Fear of failure. Fear of success.
Michael Law
#26. Europe seems a little softer, but in America it's harsh. In L.A., where I live, it's all about perfectionism.
Alanis Morissette
#27. Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while
Anne Lamott
#28. I really believe that it is honesty about our imperfect selves that makes everyone do better and be better.
Dan Pearce
#29. Perfectionism is the enemy of the idea muscle. Perfectionism is your brain trying to protect you from harm - from coming up with an idea that is embarrassing and stupid and could cause you to suffer pain.
James Altucher
#30. The grandest seduction of all is the myth that DOING EVERYTHING BETTER gets us where we want to be. It gets us somewhere, certainly, but not anywhere worth being.
Shauna Niequist
#31. Whatever happens, there are always things you could have done better. You score two goals and you usually feel you could have done better. You score two goals and you usually feel you could have scored a third. That's perfectionism. That's what makes you progress in life.
Eric Cantona
#32. No matter how long the preparation,
you will never feel ready to write an
exam, to start a business, to be parent
or even to die. Just go for it.
Moffat Machingura
#33. The drive for perfectionism is a corrosive waste of time, because nothing is ever beyond criticism. No
Elizabeth Gilbert
#34. Becoming is better than being. Perfectionism doesn't exist. We need to stretch ourselves and continue learning.
Iben Dissing Sandahl
#35. 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.
Brene Brown
#36. perfectionism is sometimes the most dangerous set of thoughts you can let make their home in your head.
James Altucher
#37. Perfectionism is a dangerous state of mind in an imperfect world. The best way is to forget doubts and set about the task in hand ... If you are doing your best, you will not have time to worry about failure.
Robert Hillyer
#38. To be a learner, you've got to be willing to be a fool.
George Leonard
#39. Perfectionism robs you of your freedom.
Steve Brown
#40. Oxford was in love with the idea of Christian perfection.
Philip Zaleski
#43. There is often no line between perfection and evil.
Ken Liu
#44. We freeze up because we expect a certain result or because we want things to be perfect.
Bernie Glassman
#45. It's always helpful to remember that when perfectionism is driving, shame is riding shotgun.
Brene Brown
#46. 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.
Veronica Roth
#47. 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.
Dave Chappelle
#48. Fuck you perfectionism. Without you, I am brilliant.
Coco J. Ginger
#51. Insecurity's best cover is perfectionism. That's where it becomes an art form.
Beth Moore
#52. Perfectionism will ruin your writing, blocking inventiveness and playfulness and life force
Anne Lamott
#53. Alexander was in the grip of a passion for perfection. He was not aware of how closely, how perilously, perfectionism and fanaticism are related.
Tove Jansson
#54. Perfectionism is a shield that we carry with a thought process that says this, 'If I look perfect, live perfect, work perfect, and do it all perfectly, I can avoid or minimize feeling shame, blame, and judgement.
Brene Brown
#55. On this sacred path of Radical Acceptance, rather than striving for perfection, we discover how to love ourselves into wholeness.
Tara Brach
#57. It's in our biology to trust what we see with our eyes. This makes living in a carefully edited, overproduced and photoshopped world very dangerous.
Brene Brown
#58. Just doing as well as you did last time is not good enough.
Michael Jackson
#59. When the good student chooses the honest path, free of perfectionism and faking, music study becomes something refreshingly new: a calm oasis of self-acceptance for those who are so used to driving themselves and trying to please others.
William Westney
#60. I think perfectionism is just a high-end, haute couture version of fear.
Elizabeth Gilbert
#61. At the end of the day, our recovery must be based not on shame or perfectionism or the need to impress others, but on our willingness to be kind to ourselves.
Erica Spiegelman
#62. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly. (on not perfectionism to put things off) .
Gilbert K. Chesterton
#63. God, grant me the serenity to stop beating myself up for not doing things perfectly, the courage to forgive myself because I'm working on doing better, and the wisdom to know that You already love me just the way I am.
Eleanor Brownn
#64. Perfectionism is not the path that leads us to our gifts and to our sense of purpose; it's the hazardous detour.
Brene Brown
#65. But in all His relationships, God reaches for man. Reaches for you who have fallen and scraped your heart raw, for you who feel the shame of words that have snaked off your tongue and poisoned corners of your life, for you who keep trying to cover up pain with perfectionism.
Ann Voskamp
#66. Perfectionism means that you try not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived.
Anne Lamott
#67. In a weird kind of way, music has afforded me an idealism and perfectionism that I could never attain as me.
Billy Corgan
#68. Perfectionism is the mother of procrastination.
Michael Hyatt
#69. It was clear that most of my insecurities originated from my need to have things be "perfect." I wasn't sure what bothered me more; the fact that I had no control over the changes of my body and hair or that this horrible situation was only happening to me.
Tracey Berkowitz
#70. When people undermine your values, they've strong reasons. For example, they mistaken your passion for excellence as perfectionism...
Assegid Habtewold
#71. Perfectionism kills art. I find that if I criticise myself, it spoils the fun. You can get paralysed by analysis - it takes all the playfulness away.
Geri Halliwell
#72. No number of compliments will convince her of anything, and one of Jacob's projects in their marriage is to wean her off perfectionism.
Maggie Shipstead
#73. Life is not that tough if you have a perfectionist sub-ordinate; life is a bit tough when you have a perfectionist peer; life is toughest when you have a perfectionist supervisor!
Abhishek Ratna
#74. Never let the principle of what you believe in become more important than the person.
Shannon L. Alder
#75. Perfectionism, of course, was something which even as a young man he had come to see as the innermost essence of talent.
Thomas Mann
#76. Perfection is not to be attained, but to be pursued infinitely.
Abhijit Naskar
#77. How many stress symptoms, illnesses, or injuries do we need to suffer through before we recognize that our obsession with perfectionism enslaves us to crave more - despite wearing ourselves out to the point of exhaustion?
Heidi Hanna
#78. We must understand the need for perfectionism is a corrosive waste of time, because nothing is ever beyond criticism. No matter how many hours you spend to render something flawless, somebody will always be able to find fault with it.
Elizabeth Gilbert
#79. When perfectionism is driving us, shame is riding shotgun and fear is that annoying backseat driver!
Brene Brown
#80. Done is better than perfect if perfect ain't done.
Eric Thomas
#82. I don't know who started this thing about being perfect but the sooner we ditch that idea the happier we all will be!
Alastair Arnott
#83. Perfectionism becomes a badge of honor with you playing the part of the suffering hero.
David D. Burns
#84. The culture of shame is driven by fear, blame and disconnection, and it is often a powerful incubator for issues like perfectionism, stereotyping, gossiping and addiction.
Brene Brown
#85. Regret is just perfectionism plus time.
B.J. Novak
#86. When it comes to women, our perfectionism gives us a lot of grief. Women want to be super moms, super partners and super performers at work - and all at the same time. That's stressful.
Kristina Schroder
#87. There are too many people who love me, and accept me, and never try and change me, and who don't condemn me in the slightest, for me to waste even one moment of my life anymore worrying about what other people will think.
Dan Pearce
#88. The unfolding over time of a great idea is like the growth of a fractal crystal, allowing details and refinements to multiply endlessly - but only in ever-increasing scale.
David Bayles
#89. The fastest way to break the cycle of perfectionism and become a fearless mother is to give up the idea of doing it perfectly - indeed to embrace uncertainty and imperfection.
Arianna Huffington
#90. At times failure is very necessary for the artist. It reminds him that failure is not the ultimate disaster. And this reminder liberates him from the mean fussing of perfectionism.
John Berger
#91. Perfectionism is procrastination masquerading as quality control.
Steven Barnes
#92. Progress is much more better than perfect.
Toba Beta
#93. Perfectionism attaches to what is valued in the culture.
Gloria Steinem
#94. Being thin created intense anxiety that I wouldn't be able to maintain that weight for life, and I couldn't.
Jenni Schaefer
#95. The writer Rebecca Solnit puts it well: "So many of us believe in perfection, which ruins everything else, because the perfect is not only the enemy of the good; it's also the enemy of the realistic, the possible, and the fun." Perfectionism
Elizabeth Gilbert
#96. It is only by working the rituals, that any significant degree of understanding can develop. If you wait until you are positive you understand all aspects of the ceremony before beginning to work, you will never begin to work.
Lon Milo DuQuette
#98. Perfectionism is the enemy of art. Since art is essentially divine play, not dogged work, it often happens that as one becomes more professionally driven one also becomes less capriciously playful.
Erica Jong
#99. Perfectionism doesn't make you feel perfect. It makes you feel inadequate.
Maria Shriver
#100. The onslaught of scruples is a problem well attested in the spiritual life, especially among the young, where religious observances must be done perfectly to achieve a certain result.
Philip Zaleski
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