The Plot Twist: Your Drive Isn't the Enemy

The goal isn't eliminating high standards. Recent research distinguishes "perfectionism" from "excellencism," showing excellencism correlates with "academic performance, creative achievement, self-esteem, and openness to experience" while perfectionism correlates with "symptoms of depression, psychological distress, and dropout intentions" (Gaudreau et al., 2024).

The secret: Transform rigid perfectionism into flexible excellence.

Wanting to do well on a test? Healthy. Spending 12 hours on a single math problem because it's "not perfect enough"? Dangerous territory. Professor Tracey Wade developed the Clinical Perfectionism Questionnaire (CPQ) to distinguish between healthy striving and problematic perfectionism.