What is the difference between doing good work, perfectionism, and an obsessive-compulsive personality?!
Question: What is the difference between doing good work, perfectionism, and an obsessive-compulsive personality.?
Like a lot of people, I believe if you are going to do something, then do it well and do it right the first time.
What I wonder about though, is when is something good enough, and it doesn't make sense to try to improve on it. I think it's important to keep trying to improve, and don't be complacent. However, I also think that there comes a time when you just have to ease up and not drive so hard to excel at everything.
I'm certainly an overachiever, and with that comes the pressure to hang around the top with others who have accomplished a lot. I worry though, because at times, it just seems obsessive to always try to stay on top of everything.
How do you find the balance between high standards, and chilling out and learning to let some things go.?Health Question & Answer
What I wonder about though, is when is something good enough, and it doesn't make sense to try to improve on it. I think it's important to keep trying to improve, and don't be complacent. However, I also think that there comes a time when you just have to ease up and not drive so hard to excel at everything.
I'm certainly an overachiever, and with that comes the pressure to hang around the top with others who have accomplished a lot. I worry though, because at times, it just seems obsessive to always try to stay on top of everything.
How do you find the balance between high standards, and chilling out and learning to let some things go.?Health Question & Answer
Answers:
I think it depends on how you react when things don't go perfectly the first time. Life is such that they won't always; there are factors outside of our control that will sometimes prevent us from achieving our aims. That's right: legitimately outside of our control! And sometimes we have human failings, and on occasion may be tired, distracted or whatever. If you can accept this and move on, you are a healthy high-achiever. If you beat yourself up about it to the point of being a miserable bastard, you are a perfectionist. If you keep at it over, and over again to the point that it interferes with your ability to function normally, you might suffer from an obsessive-compulsive disorder.
How to find the right balance.? I guess it's to realise that having failed on occasion to achieve one aim doesn't mean that the whole game is over and that there's no longer a point in trying to achieve all the others. It surprising how easy it is to fall into that trap. It's not an all or nothing game: that's the secret. It's how to move on.Health Question & Answer
How to find the right balance.? I guess it's to realise that having failed on occasion to achieve one aim doesn't mean that the whole game is over and that there's no longer a point in trying to achieve all the others. It surprising how easy it is to fall into that trap. It's not an all or nothing game: that's the secret. It's how to move on.Health Question & Answer
Mike,
This is just my opinion of course, but - from the perspective of an engineer that's been working for 20 years in a field where a certain level of quality is imperative and every penny must be stretched to the limit, I think I can address your question adequately.
The line to draw, the one that matters on the job, is called "value added". Does more time invested in the job, more accuracy, improve the product or not.? For example - a lumberyard measures everything with a yardstick or tape measure. That's as close as it needs to be for anything they do. If one of the guys working in the yard pulled out a caliper and gave a measurement with 4 decimals, he's be wasting time. More accurate, yes. More time invested, yes. A better job done in general at measuring, yes. Does it matter.? No.
Now imagine the someone else working at a machine shop turning brake rotors. If someone pulled out a yardstick to measure the rotor, they'd be fired. Micrometers and calipers are a requirement.
Dishes need to be sanitized, they need the food knocked off, but when you wash them, you don't bake them like surgery tools.
I'm sure you get the point on that.
That's the first aspect of your question. The other aspect is totally different and has to do with your general drive to excel. The question being, how good is good enough.? The answer to this one is totally different. In general, regarding working for someone else, or at a job, the question is - did you give them what they paid for.? Did you give an hours work for an hour of pay.? Did you provide the service that was requested at a quality they are satisfied with.? IF so, then that is good enough. The reality is - people do NOT want to pay for more than they asked for. Everyone has a budget for everything. It may not seem like Bill Gates has one, but you can bet he does. If I could sell Bill a crappy car for a billion bucks, I'd do it, but I'm sure he won't go for it. That's the crazy limit, but the point is the same when taken to the tipping point in the middle of the decision.
The next aspect of the question is how does this apply to your life.? When do you stop pushing.?
That's personal. Some people don't have an upper limit because the drive itself is where they draw self worth and happiness from. I'm not that person. Most CEO's, VP's, and other overachievers fall into this category. In spite of what jealous people, uneducated people, and others that don't know what they are talking about would say - people like this are driven to the exlusion of most other aspects of life and have paid their dues. Sometimes the salaries are a bit whacked, but they didn't get where they are on favortism and good luck and by having "a piece of paper" (that's the terminology used by those without it to demean several years of sacrifice, physical, and mental effort so that they don't feel less for not having it. ). No one should of course, it's their insecurity talking. The reality is - it was a choice, a level of achievement made by the person who got it. The same is true of olympic and professional athletes.
Everyone has a physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual breaking points. Some people go to these limits. Others stop before then. The key is determining what makes you feel fulfilled and happy.
If you don't have that, no amount of accomplishment will matter. If you neglect your relationships and those you love, accomplishments become hollow and meaningless benchmarks in your life.
Part of becoming emotionally mature is determining how to balance these aspects. You balance them based on your own priorities and what makes you happiest. Sometimes - they are based on necessity. Someone that loves their 6 children and doesn't want them to eat ramen noodles every day may need to work double shifts if their abilities will only garner minimum wage in the world. They don't want to work double shifts, but they want their kids to be healthy, so they make the choice.
Hope this helps. It gave me a chance to think about my own life.
-KevinHealth Question & Answer
This is just my opinion of course, but - from the perspective of an engineer that's been working for 20 years in a field where a certain level of quality is imperative and every penny must be stretched to the limit, I think I can address your question adequately.
The line to draw, the one that matters on the job, is called "value added". Does more time invested in the job, more accuracy, improve the product or not.? For example - a lumberyard measures everything with a yardstick or tape measure. That's as close as it needs to be for anything they do. If one of the guys working in the yard pulled out a caliper and gave a measurement with 4 decimals, he's be wasting time. More accurate, yes. More time invested, yes. A better job done in general at measuring, yes. Does it matter.? No.
Now imagine the someone else working at a machine shop turning brake rotors. If someone pulled out a yardstick to measure the rotor, they'd be fired. Micrometers and calipers are a requirement.
Dishes need to be sanitized, they need the food knocked off, but when you wash them, you don't bake them like surgery tools.
I'm sure you get the point on that.
That's the first aspect of your question. The other aspect is totally different and has to do with your general drive to excel. The question being, how good is good enough.? The answer to this one is totally different. In general, regarding working for someone else, or at a job, the question is - did you give them what they paid for.? Did you give an hours work for an hour of pay.? Did you provide the service that was requested at a quality they are satisfied with.? IF so, then that is good enough. The reality is - people do NOT want to pay for more than they asked for. Everyone has a budget for everything. It may not seem like Bill Gates has one, but you can bet he does. If I could sell Bill a crappy car for a billion bucks, I'd do it, but I'm sure he won't go for it. That's the crazy limit, but the point is the same when taken to the tipping point in the middle of the decision.
The next aspect of the question is how does this apply to your life.? When do you stop pushing.?
That's personal. Some people don't have an upper limit because the drive itself is where they draw self worth and happiness from. I'm not that person. Most CEO's, VP's, and other overachievers fall into this category. In spite of what jealous people, uneducated people, and others that don't know what they are talking about would say - people like this are driven to the exlusion of most other aspects of life and have paid their dues. Sometimes the salaries are a bit whacked, but they didn't get where they are on favortism and good luck and by having "a piece of paper" (that's the terminology used by those without it to demean several years of sacrifice, physical, and mental effort so that they don't feel less for not having it. ). No one should of course, it's their insecurity talking. The reality is - it was a choice, a level of achievement made by the person who got it. The same is true of olympic and professional athletes.
Everyone has a physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual breaking points. Some people go to these limits. Others stop before then. The key is determining what makes you feel fulfilled and happy.
If you don't have that, no amount of accomplishment will matter. If you neglect your relationships and those you love, accomplishments become hollow and meaningless benchmarks in your life.
Part of becoming emotionally mature is determining how to balance these aspects. You balance them based on your own priorities and what makes you happiest. Sometimes - they are based on necessity. Someone that loves their 6 children and doesn't want them to eat ramen noodles every day may need to work double shifts if their abilities will only garner minimum wage in the world. They don't want to work double shifts, but they want their kids to be healthy, so they make the choice.
Hope this helps. It gave me a chance to think about my own life.
-KevinHealth Question & Answer
Its all a matter of degree. Here is my take on the subject.
Good work is a normal effort for someone driven to achieve and to get ahead. This person does not overly worry about the degree of their effort. They are not loosing sleep. They do a good job, have a realistic perspective that their effort is good work and move on the another task or facet of life when the job is complete.
Perfectionists are all of the above, except they have a very hard time letting it go. It must be perfect. Anything less is completely unacceptable. A perfectionist is often driven by fear...surprisingly, of failing. Often a perfectionist's co-workers must achieve the same level of perfection or there's trouble. Perfectionists are often pre-occupied by a task and worry about it endlessly - regardless whether they can change it or not. They may have a poor concept of what is excellent work. Nothing is ever good enough. Real perfectionists usually don't have the insight to label themselves perfectionists. Occassionally these people are highly functional, e.g. cardiothoracic surgeons.
Obsessive compulsive individuals have nothing to do with excellent work. They can obsess about anything. Usually if they do not carry out their ritual then they have an (irrational and unrelated) fear something horrible will happen. For example, I must recite the alphabet 37 times every morning or a crippling illness will befall my mother. Counting and numbers are important. OC will impact an individual's life substantially. The condition can be treated with medications and therapy.Health Question & Answer
Good work is a normal effort for someone driven to achieve and to get ahead. This person does not overly worry about the degree of their effort. They are not loosing sleep. They do a good job, have a realistic perspective that their effort is good work and move on the another task or facet of life when the job is complete.
Perfectionists are all of the above, except they have a very hard time letting it go. It must be perfect. Anything less is completely unacceptable. A perfectionist is often driven by fear...surprisingly, of failing. Often a perfectionist's co-workers must achieve the same level of perfection or there's trouble. Perfectionists are often pre-occupied by a task and worry about it endlessly - regardless whether they can change it or not. They may have a poor concept of what is excellent work. Nothing is ever good enough. Real perfectionists usually don't have the insight to label themselves perfectionists. Occassionally these people are highly functional, e.g. cardiothoracic surgeons.
Obsessive compulsive individuals have nothing to do with excellent work. They can obsess about anything. Usually if they do not carry out their ritual then they have an (irrational and unrelated) fear something horrible will happen. For example, I must recite the alphabet 37 times every morning or a crippling illness will befall my mother. Counting and numbers are important. OC will impact an individual's life substantially. The condition can be treated with medications and therapy.Health Question & Answer