Driven By Perfectionism

How to Overcome Perfectionism?

The Root Cause of Perfectionism - How to break the cycle of performance anxiety

Workaholic - defined as an addiction involving an uncontrollable need or compulsion to work continuously. A person who cannot rest without their mind thinking of something to do. Most researchers define it as an addictive compulsion to work.

Perfectionist Personality

Drivenness (due to inner pressures) and low enjoyment of work. Workaholics focus primarily on their "career self" for "self-validation" while ignoring other important aspects of self. Self-validation might result in physical symptoms, alienation from friends and family, lack of development of the authentic self, and an existential crisis.

Overwork and workaholism may cause physical symptoms (e.g., ulcers, chest pain) and even death because workaholics may feel too busy to take care of their health needs.

 
Workaholism has been correlated with depression, anxiety, perfectionism, and anger, as well as stress and burnout.

Why Do People Have a Perfectionist Personality?

Those who grew up in environments where "well done" was never heard.
When such acceptance and affirmation are lacking, it is by no means unusual for the respect-starved person to conclude that more work, a more significant accumulation of symbols of success or worldly praise will finally convince some vital person (a parent, for example) who has withheld approval to eventually say, "Son (Daughter), you are not a bum after all. I'm terribly proud to be your father."

Perfectionist Traits

Another source of drivenness is an early experience of severe deprivation or shame. Did you know an enormous number of world political leaders have been orphans?

Behind their incredible drive for power may be the simple need for love. Rather than meeting this need through ordering the private world within (inner pressure), they have chosen to pursue it on the external level. Could that be some of you?

Driven people can also come from backgrounds with a sense of great shame or embarrassment, or some people are simply raised in an environment where drivenness is a way of life.

Driven people will never enjoy the tranquillity of an ordered private world. Their prime targets are all external, material, and measurable. Nothing else seems natural; nothing else makes much sense.

How about being driven toward a superior Christian reputation, toward a desire for some dramatic spiritual experience, or toward a form of leadership that is more a quest for domination of people than servanthood?

A homemaker or even a student can be a driven person. Do you live by a list and cannot rest until all is completed? A driven person can be any of us. How To Overcome Perfectionism!

How to Overcome Perfectionism?

To overcome perfectionism in one's life, one must ruthlessly appraise one's motives and values, see who they are in Christ, and come to terms with God's love. Did you know a driven person is never satisfied in their walk with God?

Can you do that, or hear an inner voice not allowing you to be satisfied with your work?
A driven person will have to grant forgiveness to some of those who, in the past, never offered the proper kind of affection and affirmation. And all of that may be just the beginning. Paul, the apostle in his pre-Christian days, was driven. As a driven man, he studied, joined, attained, defended, and was applauded. 

The pace at which he was operating shortly before his conversion was almost manic. He was driven toward some elusive goal, and later, when he could look back at that lifestyle with all of its compulsions, he would say, "It was all worthless."Paul was driven until Christ called him. One feels that when Paul fell to his knees before the Lord while on the road to Damascus, there was an explosion of relief within his private world.

Coach Teresa Morin, Anxious2Victorious Women 12-Week Program - How to Break the Anxiety Cycle