Why Being a Perfectionist Can Be Harmful

Why Being a Perfectionist Can Be Harmful If you are a perfectionist, you are probably familiar with the feeling of wanting to get everything just right. You may struggle with handing in papers, agonize over projects at work, and even worry about small errors from the past. High standards are one thing, but perfectionism  is quite another. And as some researchers have discovered, pursuing perfection can have serious consequences to both mental and physical well being. What Is Perfectionism? According to researchers, perfectionists hold themselves to unrealistically  high standards  and become self-critical if they believe they haven’t met these standards. Perfectionists are also likely to feel guilt and shame if they experience failures, which often leads them to avoid situations where they are worried they might fail. Amanda Ruggeri, writing about perfectionism for BBC Future, explains, â€Å"When  [perfectionists] don’t succeed, they don’t just feel disappointment about how they did. They feel shame about who they are.† How Perfectionism Can Be Harmful Although many people see the pursuit of excellence as a good thing, researchers have found that on the extreme end, perfectionism is actually linked to lower mental health. In one study, researchers analyzed how perfectionism was related to mental health across previous studies. They looked at a total of 284 studies (with over 57,000 participants) and found that perfectionism was associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and eating disorders. They also found that people higher in perfectionism (i.e. participants who more strongly identified with perfectionist traits) also reported higher levels of overall psychological distress. In an article published in 2016, researchers looked at how perfectionism and depression were related over time. They found that people higher in perfectionism tended to have increases in depression symptoms, which suggests that perfectionism may be a risk factor for developing depression. In other words, although people may think of their perfectionism as something that helps them succeed, it appears that their perfectionism may actually be harmful for their mental health. Is perfectionism always harmful? Psychologists have debated this point, with some suggesting that there can be such a thing as adaptive perfectionism, in which people hold themselves to high standards without engaging in self-criticism over mistakes they make. Some researchers have suggested that a healthier form of perfectionism involves pursuing goals because you want to, and not blaming yourself if you fail to meet a goal. However, other  researchers suggest that perfectionism is not adaptive: according to these researchers, perfectionism is more than just holding yourself to high standards, and they don’t think perfectionism is beneficial. Is Perfectionism on the Rise? In one study, researchers looked at how perfectionism has changed over time. The researchers reviewed previously collected data from over 41,000 college students, from 1989 to 2016. They found that over the time period studied, college students reported increasing levels of perfectionism: they held themselves to higher standards, felt there were higher expectations placed on them, and held others to higher standards. Importantly, what increased the most were the social expectations that young adults picked up on from the surrounding environment. The researchers hypothesize that this could be because society is increasingly competitive: college students might pick up on these pressures from their parents and from society, which would increase perfectionist tendencies. How to Combat Perfectionism Since perfectionism is associated with negative outcomes, what can someone with perfectionist tendencies do to change their behavior? Although people are sometimes hesitant to give up their perfectionist tendencies, psychologists point out that giving up on perfection doesn’t mean being less successful. In fact, because mistakes are an important part of learning and growing, embracing imperfection can actually help us in the long run. One possible alternative to perfectionism involves developing what psychologists call a growth mindset. Researchers at Stanford University have found that cultivating a growth mindset is a crucial way to help us learn from our failures. Unlike those with fixed mindsets (who see their skill levels as innate and unchangeable), those with growth mindsets believe they can improve their abilities by learning from their mistakes. Psychologists point out that parents can play a crucial role in helping their children develop healthier attitudes towards failure: they can praise their children for making an effort (even if their results were imperfect) and help children learn to persevere when they make mistakes. Another potential alternative to perfectionism is to cultivate self-compassion. To understand self-compassion, think about how you would respond to a close friend if they made a mistake. Odds are, you’d probably respond with kindness and understanding, knowing that your friend meant well. The idea behind self-compassion is that we should treat ourselves kindly when we make mistakes, remind ourselves that mistakes are part of being human, and avoid being consumed by negative emotions. As Ruggeri points out for BBC Future, self-compassion can be beneficial for mental health, but perfectionists tend not to treat themselves in compassionate ways. If you’re interested in trying to foster more self-compassion, the researcher who developed the concept of self-compassion has a short exercise you can try. Psychologists have also suggested that cognitive behavioral therapy can be a way to help people change their beliefs about perfectionism. Although perfectionism is linked to lower mental health, the good news is that perfectionism is something you can change. By working to see mistakes as learning opportunities, and replacing self-criticism with self-compassion, it’s possible to overcome perfectionism and develop a healthier way of setting goals for yourself. References: Curran, T., Hill, A. P. (2017, Dec 28). Perfectionism Is Increasing Over Time: A Meta- Analysis of Birth Cohort Differences From 1989 to 2016. Psychological Bulletin. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/bul0000138 apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/bul-bul0000138.pdfDahl, M. (2015, Sept 17). Is it possible to be a perfectionist without driving yourself nuts? The Science of Us (New York Magazine). http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/09/perfectionism-but-without-driving-yourself-nuts.htmlLeahy, R. L. (2017, Mar 15). Successful imperfection. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/anxiety-files/201703/successful-imperfectionLimburg, K., Watson, H. J., Hagger, M. S., Egan, S. J. (2016). The relationship between perfectionism and psychopathology: A meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 73(10), 1301-1326. doi: 10.1002/jclp.22435 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311939754Neff. K. Definition of self-compassion. http://self-compassion.org/the-t hree-elements-of-self-compassion-2/ Pruett, K. D. (2017, May 18). Being parents of a perfectionist. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/once-upon-child/201705/being-parents-perfectionistRuggeri, A. (2018, Feb 21). The dangerous downsides of perfectionism. BBC Future. bbc.com/future/story/20180219-toxic-perfectionism-is-on-the-riseSmith, M. M., Sherry, S. B., Rnic, K., Saklofske, D. H., Enns, M., Gralnick, T. (2016). Are perfectionism dimensions vulnerability factors for depressive symptoms after controlling for neuroticism? A meta-analysis of 10 longitudinal studies. European Journal of Personality, 30(2), 201-212. doi: 10.1002/per.2053 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b6ad/6f32c90beb8b2c2e6f3a0b698bd781bed0ba.pdf

How to format a business document

How to format a business document Hook your reader: 5 killer formatting tips to get your document read Theres nothing like it, is there? That satisfying moment when you finally finish the document youve been working on for days. Youve done the research, youve marshalled your facts and youve made it through the hardest part: getting it down on paper. Job done. But hold on. Before you attach it to an email, send it and celebrate, ask yourself: how does it look? Your documents presentation may seem like a small point. Yet it could be the difference between your hard work being read and acted on or it being put aside for a later that never comes. You may well have been hunched over a hot keyboard slaving away on it all week. Its only natural that you should think its a must-read, which would capture the readers attention even if it were printed on the back of a till receipt from Lidl. But dont be fooled. Very few documents genuinely fall into that category – especially in a world where too much information is more of a problem than too little. The appearance of your document is the first impression your would-be reader gets. So it needs to hook them in and encourage them to read on. Theres nothing very enticing about a wall of text, tiny fonts or endless tables. We talk a lot on this blog about how to make your writing more readable. But no matter how compelling your words may be, theyll be wasted if they go unread. So here are five proven document-formatting techniques that will stop your work being thrown back into the sea of other discarded documents and make sure what youve written actually gets read. 1) White space is not wasted space White space is simply anywhere on the page where there is no text or images. Dont be fooled into thinking this space is wasted. Wider margins are your friend. They reduce the length of each individual line of text, making your writing easier for your readers eyes to scan. And they create mental breathing space* that makes the whole document more pleasant to read. *(We know thats not a thing, but you get the idea.) Newspapers have been using this trick for a very long time – its why they use narrow columns. Pick up a newspaper and youll probably find yourself tempted to read something on the page, and the easy-to-read appearance of the text in narrow columns is a big reason for this. Of course, most of us have been tempted at some point to make a documents margins narrower and lines of text longer, in order to reduce the overall length. So a document that was once three-and-a-half pages will instantly become a nice round three. (We even had one client proudly tell us how consultants had redesigned their templates to reduce margins down to a minimum, to save paper.) But this is a bad idea. Yes, youll hand over a document with fewer pages – but every one of those pages will look less professional and be more difficult to read. Better to use more paper than waste all of it. So avoid the temptation to squeeze as much text onto a page as possible – your reader will thank you for it. Were not suggesting that you use newspaper-like columns; just that you consider making the margins a bit wider and the body text a little narrower than you might otherwise do. 2) Use fonts well Our top tip on this topic is to avoid overthinking it. There are lots of business-appropriate fonts available. Youre faced with lots of good choices, so youre unlikely to go far wrong. Weve written about the best fonts for business documents in more detail before, but heres a quick summary: Both serif fonts (eg Garamond or Times New Roman) or sans-serif fonts (eg Helvetica or Arial) are fine for business documents. Try pairing fonts: use one kind of font for the headlines and subheads, and another for the body text. If youre using a serif font for the body text, try using a sans-serif font for the headlines, or vice versa. And resist the urge to use too many different fonts: no more than two on a page is a good rule of thumb. You can also try pairing two fonts from the same font family; for example, using Lucida Bright for the headings and Lucida Sans for the body text. 3) Use headlines and subheads as signposts Headlines and subheads are crucial signposts for the reader. Used effectively, they can summarise the entire story of a document by themselves and guide the reader through your most important points. They also break up large blocks of text, which can be hugely off-putting. Format headlines and subheads in bold (and in a larger font size if you like). In the documents we analyse for participants in our courses, we often see people using underline for subheads (or bold and underline). But this isnt necessary and can look cluttered or old-fashioned. Bold is enough by itself. We also frequently see people using subheads that are an equal distance from the paragraph that preceded them and the paragraph that comes after them. This gives the subheads the appearance of floating halfway between the two paragraphs.  So make sure there is more space before a subhead than there is below it. This will make clear that the subhead is for the paragraph below it. 4) Use lists and tables carefully Lists are an effective way to draw the eye, but thats probably why theyre frequently overused. Always bear in mind that each extra list that you add reduces the impact of every other list on the page. Some documents even consist mainly of lists – probably because theyre easy to write. But whats easier for the author is much harder for the reader. Such documents are disjointed and therefore usually difficult to follow. Tables are often a handy substitute for lists, as well as a neat way to format straightforward information. Theyre especially useful if you need to compare two or more things directly, against the same criteria. (For example, you might need to compare sales figures or possible outcomes of different courses of action.) When formatting tables, avoid using gridlines that run close to the text. Instead, insert space above and below it (using the paragraph formatting menu, if youre using Microsoft Word). And experiment with taking out vertical – or even all – internal gridlines. The extra space around the information should make it easier to read. You can differentiate long rows by shading every other one. In Word, you can do this by going to Table tools → Design. 5) Draw attention with boxes Boxes can form a vital entry-point into your document. Do you have a fact or piece of information that you know will interest your reader? A box will help you make the most of that. On the other hand, boxes are also a good place to put information that doesnt easily fit into the natural flow of your body text. Remember that a box needs to make sense on its own, as it will probably be read before the main text. You can make a box stand out by giving it a different font to the rest of the text (but remember to stick to a maximum of two fonts in your document), or by using background shading. And, as ever, remember to give the text plenty of space (white or otherwise) around it. Text crammed inside a small box will look very uninviting, defeating the point of separating it from the rest of the document. No design experience needed You might be surprised at the big impact small tweaks like these can have. So keep these simple rules in mind when you write your next document. When youve put them in place, youll have a much more readable document to hand over. And, when youre finished, you really will be able to say, job done. Image credit: Rapala fishing lures by Chau kar Man used under CC BY-NC-SA / cropped from original