Perfectionist or High Achiever: Which One Are You?

Jan 1

You would not be alone if you were unable to differentiate between a perfectionist and a high achiever.

What is the difference between them and how do these categorise people go about their daily lives to attain their perfecting or high achieving standards?

Interviewing a potential colleague can be predictable at times!

When asked what one of their weaknesses were, the clichéd answer of ‘perfectionism’ always made me grimace within.

Not because of any irritation that the textbook answer of turning a negative into a positive may have caused, but as an interviewer, I truly wanted sincere and authentic responses to the questions I posed.

Perfection, as defined, is impossible (impossibility being another argument that people doubt exists which, in this Sade, are proven wrong).

Being or having something that is faultless is simply not attainable in the world we live.

If it were, it would imply that we can accomplish things 100% if the time that have no errors, but more importantly, no possible improvements could ever be made.

Try telling that to an Olympic 100 metre sprinter working in minute detail to work towards a world record!

Perfection, in my view, means there is no other way of developing an idea, a result or any other working assumption and that sits uneasy with me!

I have always been one to push myself to do better, strive for the best and work harder to achieve more. That surely means that nothing I ever do can be perfect and this in actual fact reassures me.

It brings two main things to mind:-

I can learn from myself and from others through the mistakes that I have made and what those around me teach;
I can develop myself and achieve higher standards next time, always improving from the last attempt. This hasn’t always been the case for me.

I would have definitely classed myself as a perfectionist maybe 10 years ago, always wanting to be faultless and never letting myself off, even for the slightest mistake that I may have made.

It didn’t serve me well and I have seen the same in others since.

When someone who seeks perfection makes a mistake during a task or a project requires correction in places, that person is likely to feel really bad. In fact, they might feel a sense of anxiety or overwhelm and maybe even anger because of it.

This is where I have seen perfection almost ruin people as they reach their breaking point.

They are often so caught up in being perfect that what they don’t see is all the fantastic things in between. They chase after perfection and, ultimately, it lets everyone, including themselves, down.

Creating a standard no lower than perfection can only cause wasted time. In the time that it takes any person to make sure that everything is absolutely 100% perfect, it can mean a missed deadline, not only for that person but, consequently, for all the others in the chain as well.

At this stage, it is important to note that accuracy and efficiency is required in most professions and it is not being suggested that everything is finished in a haphazard and erroneous way.

There are times that standards must be high and full focus and concentration is essential in ensuring the result of a piece of work is as close as being perfect as possible.

However, there are many instances where people get caught up in unnecessary time wasting activities that the end result is not only imperfect but it has almost been overworked.

When people hone their skills in whatever they are doing, be it their profession, studies, writing or sport, they are indeed doing their best to perfect their art and achieve the highest standard they can.

This does not come automatically.

It takes commitment, hard work and, quite often, a degree of sacrifice.

Why people feel the need to be perfect

When sitting with this phrase for a while, I think of the answer to this for my own benefit.

Question: Why did I feel the need to [try to] be perfect all those years ago?

To impress someone and people please
To avoid feeling like a failure and facing rejection by someone
To prove something to someone (or myself)

For me, the majority of answers I came up with was about ‘someone’ and an insecurity I felt.

Only the last point here shows that striving for perfection might have been for myself (but then I go on to think how that was driven in order to make someone else proud anyway!)

I was often highly critical of myself and others who might have been attempting to achieve something.

I could only spot the errors.

I fixated on the mistakes and didn’t celebrate the wins nearly enough.

It had taken me many years to learn that the high standard I used to set myself and, in turn, others, was untenable and mostly unattainable.

I have worked hard to dial down the notion that if what I did wasn’t perfect, it was worthless.

There is something else that I have learned within the last five years and that is that you can strive to do the best you can and maximise your potential without demoralising yourself in the process.

It is not always about the results.

The process of getting to that point should be part of the journey of development and learning.

That, in itself, is achieving the skills required to being the very best you can be at any given time.

I know that how I class myself now can be defined as being a high achiever.

That is, I aim for the best, focus on the goals and even when they are achieved, although I might not necessarily be 100% satisfied because I feel the result could

have been better, I identify areas in which more work is required so I can improve on it next time but, more importantly, I take a great deal of value from the process itself.

The experience of anything will always be worthwhile for high achievers because we recognise how we all develop organically and this strengthens us from within.

This is where high achievers may have the advantage to perfectionists.

The more someone is willing to learn and improve on their current status, the more likely they will achieve their goals quicker and minimise the risk of burnout.

This is because they remain enthused and encouraged, which will lead to a high-level of motivation and inner determination, as opposed to any pressure they or others may apply to them to just get the results!

There isn’t a better time to work out where you sit and, whether you lean towards being a perfectionist or a high achiever.

The societal change over the decades has created an even more competitive and pressurised environment for people of all ages.

In whatever stage of life we find ourselves in, there is often an expectation of those in the present to exceed and surpass those that have been there and done it before.

If they don’t, it is often seen as a failure.

Perfectionist ideals at its best!

However, if this is approached with cautious pragmatism, the learning and development process should be treated as a potential opportunity rather than a given.

The supportive leader is more likely to be akin to the high achiever’s mindset, with a more positive and motivational manner of encouraging anyone around them.

Life has somehow become more complex, in that the modern society expects results immediately.

The constant pressure put upon people set them up for a perfect failure