Let’s Share and Connect: Perfectionism

Sometimes perfectionism looks like ambition, discipline, or caring deeply about the things we do. Other times, it looks like overthinking, comparing ourselves to others, being afraid to fail, or never quite feeling like we've done enough. Sometimes we hold ourselves to standards that we'd never expect from the people we love. We can accomplish something we've worked hard for and immediately start thinking about what we could have done better. This conversation is about exploring our relationship with perfectionism: what it gives us, what it takes from us, and what we might be afraid of losing if we let it go. How We Begin— We will each have a portion of time to share our thoughts on the following questions in respective order below. After everyone is done sharing, we will have a group discussion per question connecting on each other's shared experiences. We don't have to answer all of the questions…we're just going to go with the flow of the talk :) Question 1: Do you consider yourself a perfectionist? How does perfectionism show up in your life, and are there ways it might show up that you don't immediately recognize? Question 2: What does it feel like to be a perfectionist? What goes on internally that other people might not see? Question 3: What's something perfectionism has given you, and what's something it has taken away from you? Question 4: What do you think would happen if you stopped trying so hard to get everything right?