Being a perfectionist

B

Bobbin

Honorary Master
Joined
Oct 22, 2009
Messages
10,391
Reaction score
2,359
Location
Johannesburg
What the hell, let's discuss if this a good thing or a bad thing.

I am unfortunately one of those who often reads and re-reads my emails and the things I say. I'm certain almost half of my posts here have the "edited" tag because I bloody well go back and read it again and decide I am not happy with something or need to expand further. Being of the growing opinion that this sacrifices productivity because of the time wasted I am doing a bit of an "experiment" if you will, to see if firing from the hip with everything I do pans out any better... (Or lands me getting fired :p)

Who else is a perfectionist and feels it gets in the way of progress? Thoughts?
 
Good and bad, depending on which side of the fence you sit on.

I'm sort of the same, in that I have to make sure that everything I do is correct, rather than rushing through things and spending more time later on remedial action. It borders on OCD and it irritates me because it does take up time. Not just in the working environment either, but general issues...
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Good and bad, depending on which side of the fence you sit on.

I'm sort of the same, in that I have to make sure that everything I do is correct, rather than rushing through things and spending more time later on remedial action. It borders on OCD and it irritates me because it does take up time. Not just in the working environment either, but general issues...
Click to expand...

Agreed. The level of control it might extend to i.e. trying to manage every aspect of your day only to get stressed out by distractions and so on. Or working hard to produce a well written document or policy or whatever, only to have whatever comes back as totally misunderstood. Disagreeing with systems that don't seem to be in the best run manner or comprehensive enough. I think I spend way too much time trying to be perfect, make things perfect, expect things that come to me as perfect and so on.
 
adsl2 said:
I also notice this with me. Just for interest sake: which of the four temperaments would you consider yourself?
Click to expand...

Melancholic is mostly in tune with me I guess...

Have done numerous "personality tests" because my SO is in HR :p It always comes back with that sort of result more or less.
 
[video=youtube;1zpL81rcsSY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zpL81rcsSY[/video]

lol... well I guess the pen note youtube presentation style works ?
 
I'd also be interested to know if RPM, who I believe started this magnificent forum aside from all the other things he does successfully, is a perfectionist :p

Is perfectionism a requirement for success?
 
Bobbin said:
What does he do? Are your expectations of him not a result of your own perfectionism? :)
Click to expand...

We run a small family business and the guy frets too much and calls constantly to double check... triple check stuff! and it's not like we've given him reason to doubt us in the past, he is what he is...
 
zululami said:
We run a small family business and the guy frets too much and calls constantly to double check... triple check stuff! and it's not like we've given him reason to doubt us in the past, he is what he is...
Click to expand...

Ah makes sense.
 
Bobbin said:
What the hell, let's discuss if this a good thing or a bad thing.

I am unfortunately one of those who often reads and re-reads my emails and the things I say. I'm certain almost half of my posts here have the "edited" tag because I bloody well go back and read it again and decide I am not happy with something or need to expand further. Being of the growing opinion that this sacrifices productivity because of the time wasted I am doing a bit of an "experiment" if you will, to see if firing from the hip with everything I do pans out any better... (Or lands me getting fired :p)

Who else is a perfectionist and feels it gets in the way of progress? Thoughts?
Click to expand...
You can, if you so wish, add a comma after "experiment"...

Come on, go for it! :)
 
Oh well, if you insist you could change "...... bloody well go back and read it again" to ".....bloody well go back and read them again". :D
 
In this discussion, one must distinguish between obsessive compulsive disorder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive%E2%80%93compulsive_disorder) and obsessive compulsive personality disorder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive%E2%80%93compulsive_personality_disorder) which are two different conditions.

I've been told by a psychiatrist that I have traits of obsessive compulsive personality disorder but that I don't quite meet the diagnostic criteria thereof. I think a certain amount of perfectionism is a good thing.
 
Reformed perfectionist, it gets pretty tiring after a while.I used to overanalyze and create problems where no problems existed, now I just say stuff it let things sort themselves out most of the time.

It is a handy tool to be able to fall back on when you need to do some diy or other activity which requires attention to detail.
 
chromedome said:
Reformed perfectionist, it gets pretty tiring after a while.I used to overanalyze and create problems where no problems existed, now I just say stuff it let things sort themselves out most of the time.

It is a handy tool to be able to fall back on when you need to do some diy or other activity which requires attention to detail.
Click to expand...

badass +1 post, i was going to reply but after 1.5h of thinking i decided to do this instead :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X