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Confessions of a recovering perfectionist
How I learned to manage my weakness instead of bragging.
Sometimes you feel like a screw-up, for no reason. You fall asleep wondering if everyone secretly thinks you’re an idiot, or a slacker. You know you could’ve answered one more email. In fact, that’s your entire problem. You don’t answer enough emails.
So you tell yourself.
People like to humble brag about their perfectionism. Like it’s some quirky little pet— a safe answer on job interviews. It’s not. Perfectionism can ruin you, and it’s ruining the world.
This one friend of mine spent six years on her dissertation. That’s right, not her PhD. Her dissertation.
She learned three languages. Traveled to libraries around the world. All because she couldn’t let go.
Finally, her husband forced her to defend. He said if she didn’t, he was going to leave her. Because she was making them both miserable. I’m not generally a fan of men forcing women to do things, but I’ll give this one a pass. My friend finally defended. Her doctorate cost her ten years total.
My friend wasn’t lazy. She wrote almost a thousand pages. That’s about three times what I wrote for mine.
