C'est mon la vie simple

 
Full article link: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=20080225-000002&page=1

        Perfectionism may be the ultimate self-defeating behavior. It turns people into slaves of success—but keeps them focused on failure, dooming them to a lifetime of doubt and depression. It also winds up undermining achievement in the modern world. 
        You could say that perfectionism is a crime against humanity. Adaptability is the characteristic that enables the species to survive—and if there's one thing perfectionism does, it rigidifies behavior. It constricts people just when the fast-moving world requires more flexibility and comfort with ambiguity than ever. It turns people into success slaves.
         Perfectionists , experts now know, are made and not born, commonly at an early age . They also know that perfectionism is increasing. One reason: Pressure on children to achieve is rampant, because parents now seek much of their status from the performance of their kids . And, by itself, pressure to achieve is perceived by kids as criticism for mistakes; criticism turns out to be implicit in it. Perfectionism, too, is a form of parental control, and parental control of offspring is greater than ever in the new economy and global marketplace, realities that are deeply unsettling to today's adults ================================================================================================================================
        Before I read this article, I thought that perfectionists are natural; they just want to be perfect. This article gives me the new point of view for perfectionist; however, I think there are many other factors that contribute to this personality trait, because not all the perfectionists have high-demanded parents. This personality trait might be the result of peer pressure; maybe the children were not popular in the school so they push themselves to have good performance in order to become popular. On the other hand, the child may want to have good performance in order to attract the attention from their parents. Just as the article mentioned,” the perfectionism turns people into slaves of success—but keeps them focused on failure, dooming them to a lifetime of doubt and depression.” It is very important to learn work smart, so that you got both success and happiness. Life will be miserable if you only got success and without happiness.