Being a Perfectionist Comes with a Cost

Being a perfectionist isn’t easy and it comes with a cost.

Perfectionism can easily impact your relationships, your career, and even down to those normal every day tasks in life.

It’s exhausting and leave you feeling as if you can’t escape the hold it has on you. But this is what you know and this is how you operate.

In part one of this 3 part blog series, I’m going to share with you 3 ways being a perfectionist is impacting your life and holding you back.

I am a therapist for perfectionism in Wilmington, NC. I specialize in women’s therapy providing anxiety treatment, treatment for perfectionism, burnout treatment, and therapy for imposter syndrome.

I offer online therapy in North Carolina and online therapy in Maryland.

If you are ready to start overcoming perfectionism, click the button below to online schedule your free consultation on the date and time of your choice.

I’m Ready to Overcome Perfectionism

Continue to reading to learn how perfectionism is impacting your life.

3 Ways Perfectionism is Impacting Your Life

There are many ways perfectionism can impact your life. Sometimes it is really apparent and other times it can be more covert and sneaky. Below are the top 3 ways I have found perfectionism often impacts my clients.

#1: Perfectionism Keeps You Stuck

Striving for perfection can actually keep you from moving forward.

Perfectionism seems like it would have the opposite effect. However, often times there is so much pressure involved and it can lead to procrastination.

Procrastination is often a big part of perfectionism. The fear of not being able to achieve perfection as the outcome will keep you stuck. For example, this may look like waiting to start a project because you’re unsure of the outcome or results. This can also look like difficulty cleaning a room in your home because you won’t be able to clean the whole room or put away all the laundry in the laundry baskets at one time.

Inability to make a decision because it is important to make the perfect decision can set off the analysis paralysis. It becomes so overwhelming that it leads to not making any decision and staying stuck as well.

#2: Limiting Beliefs

Perfectionism becomes a problem when it starts to limit your beliefs. Most often those that struggle with perfectionism encounter all-or-nothing thinking also referred to as black-and-white thinking. This a type of cognitive distortion.

This type of thinking can lead you to believe that anything less than perfect is a failure and can also feed into perfectionism keeping you stuck (as discussed above).

It becomes so easy to get caught up in this cycle of irrational thinking. Most often I spend a lot of time talking with client and working together to break this cycle. As I say to my client, learning to “be in the gray” is most helpful.

#3: Increases Anxiety and Depression

The challenges associated with perfectionism can leave you feeling an increase in anxiety and depression. When this happens it becomes much more difficult to go through life. Getting stuck in perfectionistic thoughts and behaviors leads to a lot of worry, frustration, disappointment, low self-esteem, poor motivation, and many other things.

The goals you set for yourself when you have perfectionism become moving targets. Making it difficult to achieve them and leave you constantly wanting more. Often this creates a lot of unhappiness and lack of achievement.

Being a perfectionist is also hard work to keep up as well. Placing so much pressure on yourself to keep up the constant version of yourself because you don’t want to disappoint yourself and others.

Overcoming Perfectionism in Wilmington, NC at Calm Waters Counseling

Struggling with perfectionism can really make life difficult and it is hard to break the cycle of perfectionism. However, it is possible to manage and overcome perfectionism. So often my client’s tell me they have tried to deal with the perfectionism on their own and it continues to impact their work and relationships. I am here and ready to support you, just follow the steps below.

Follow these steps to get started in therapy at Calm Waters Counseling:

Click the button below to online schedule your free consultation
Complete the brief questionnaire that will be sent your email
Meet your therapist
Start living your life being more in control

Schedule My Free 15 Minute Consultation

Additional Services for Women’s Therapy in Wilmington, NC

I specialize in counseling for anxious women that are high achievers experiencing self-doubt such as imposter syndrome. Most often my clients will talk to me about overwhelming stress and anxiety they are experience and feeling burnout from work and in personal life.

To learn more about the services I offer click the links below.

Burnout Counseling in Wilmington, NC

Anxiety Therapy in Wilmington, NC

Therapy for Imposter Syndrome in Wilmington, NC

Learn more about me, an anxiety therapist.

Online Counseling for Women in North Carolina

Online therapy is becoming more popular and online therapy has a lot of benefits. While there may be some changes to meeting with your therapist virtually, therapy can still be really helpful and impactful.