Perfectionism Quotes

Perfectionism is the enemy of profitability.

Perfectionism is slow death.

But I always feel that whatever I do, I could do better. I suppose it is perfectionism.

But I am learning that perfection isn't what matters. In fact, it's the very thing that can destroy you if you let it.

Perfectionism is the mother of procrastination.

Perfectionism is the fear of being criticized.

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.

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.

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

You keep working on your piece over and over, trying to get the sections and paragraphs and sentences and the whole just right, but there's a point at which you can tell you've begun hurting the work with your perfectionism. Then you have to release the work to new eyes.

What people somehow forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here.

Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well.

Insecurity's best cover is perfectionism. That's where it becomes an art form.

Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor; the enemy of the people. It will keep you insane your whole life.

I have struggled with perfectionism and I think it's a really damaging thing in my own life. When we put that perfectionism on someone else, it just hurts relationships whereas grace and trusting someone else's heart is a really, really incredible and important part of any relationship.

The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement.

Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing perfectly.

So go marry someone, provided you're equally yoked and you actually like being with each other. Go get a job, provided it's not wicked. Go live somewhere in something with somebody or nobody. But put aside the passivity and the quest for complete fulfillment and the perfectionism and the preoccupation with the future, and for God's sake start making some decisions in your life. Don't wait for the liver-shiver. If you are seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, you will be in God's will, so just go out and do something.

Perfectionism is a perpetual flight into an illusory future that cannot be attained.

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.

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

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

My teacher once told me – ”No one is perfect……..that is why pencils have erasers.”

perfectionism is a slow death. if everything were to turn out just like i would want it to, just like i would plan for it to, then i would never experience anything new; my life would be an endless repetition of stale successes. when i make a mistake i experience something unexpected.... when i have listened to my mistakes i have grown.

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

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.

Perfectionism has nothing to do with getting it right.  It has nothing to do with fixing things.  It has nothing to do with standards.  Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move forward.  It is a loop-an obsessive, debilitating closed system that causes you to get stuck in the details of what you are writing or painting or making and to lose sight of the whole.

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

Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.

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

Perfectionism is the counterfeit of excellence. Excellence is Kingdom, while perfectionism is religion. What ever you do, do it with all you might, and as unto the Lord. That is excellence.

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

Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life Besides, perfectionism will ruin your writing, blocking inventiveness and playfulness and life force (these are words we are allowed to use in California).

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.

My path to poetry was slow and meandering. When I eventually found my way to graduate school at 29, making a life as a poet seemed like a bohemian fantasy. But maybe my zigzagging trajectory is just an excuse for tardiness, when fear is really the root of any reason I might give. My perfectionism and pace are certainly driven by fear that a poem is imperfect or incomplete. More significantly, my struggle to fully dedicate myself to poetry was a fear of failure.

Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.

There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.

They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they'd make up their minds.

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.

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.

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

Clutter and mess show us that life is being lived...Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation... Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist's true friend. What people somehow forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here.

Just as God's love entered the world, thereby submitting to the misunderstanding and ambiguity that characterize everything worldly, so also Christian love does not exist anywhere but in the worldly, in an infinite variety of concrete worldly action, and subject to misunderstanding and condemnation. Every attempt to portray a Christianity of 'pure' love purged of worldly 'impurities' is a false purism and perfectionism that scorns God's becoming human and falls prey to the fate of all ideologies. God was not too pure to enter the world.

Perfection, fortunately, is not the only alternative to mediocrity. A more sensible alternative is excellence. Striving for excellence is stimulating and rewarding; striving for perfection--in practically anything--is both neurotic and futile.

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

The way to succeed is to double your error rate.

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.

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.

Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.