Find helpful resources for understanding and managing perfectionism, including a quiz, books, blog posts, podcasts, and TED or TEDx Talks.
Quiz
Books
Blog Posts
- Root Cause Of Perfectionism (top 5 Causes)
- Letting Go of Perfectionism: Best 20 Tips
- How To Break The Cycle Of Performance Anxiety?
- How to Overcome the Fear of Losing Control?
- The Silent Struggle of Being “Too Independent”
- How to Recognize Perfectionist Thoughts in Real Time
- Perfectionism at Work: Why You Never Feel “Good Enough”
- Perfectionism in Romantic Relationships: How It Hurts Connection
- The Link Between Perfectionism and Procrastination
- Perfectionism in Parenting: How It Shows Up
- The Difference Between Healthy Standards and Perfectionism
- How to Recognize Hidden (Covert) Perfectionism
- How to Support a Loved One Who’s a Perfectionist?
Perfectionism Podcasts
- Speaking of Psychology — American Psychological Association
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APA’s psychology podcast features perfectionism researcher Gordon Flett and clinical psychologist Bonnie Zucker discussing what perfectionism is, where it comes from, its effects on mental health, and approaches used to treat it.
- Perfectionism: When Good Is Never Good Enough — Speaking of Psychology
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Perfectionism researcher Gordon Flett and clinical psychologist Bonnie Zucker explain why perfectionism is different from simply wanting to do well. They discuss its development, links with anxiety and depression, and ways it can be treated. - Why Do We Push Ourselves to Be Perfect? — Speaking of Psychology With Thomas Curran
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Psychologist Thomas Curran discusses different forms of perfectionism, why perfectionistic pressure appears to be increasing, and why “good enough” can sometimes produce healthier and more sustainable performance. - How to Be Enough: Tackling Perfectionism and Finding Self-Worth — Savvy Psychologist
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Clinical psychologist Ellen Hendriksen discusses the connection between perfectionism and self-worth, the difference between healthy striving and constant self-criticism, and practical ways to become more flexible without abandoning ambition. - That Feeling of “Always Behind and Never Enough” — 10% Happier With Ellen Hendriksen
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Covers perfectionism, anxiety, rigid rules, procrastination, comparison, fear of mistakes, and self-criticism. Hendriksen explains how to keep high standards while allowing mistakes and imperfect performance. - How to Quiet Your Inner Critic & Escape Perfectionism — Good Life Project With Ellen Hendriksen
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Focuses on replacing rigid perfectionistic rules with more flexible standards. It also discusses pursuing excellence without using harsh self-criticism as your main source of motivation. - The Hidden Cost of Perfectionism: Why You Never Feel Good Enough — The One You Feed With Ellen Hendriksen
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Explores how perfectionism can disguise itself as ambition while producing procrastination, exhaustion, and chronic feelings of inadequacy. It also examines what happens when self-worth becomes too dependent on performance. - Embracing Perfectionism — Being Well With Katherine Morgan Schafler
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Psychotherapist Katherine Morgan Schafler discusses different types of perfectionists and how to keep the useful parts of high standards without becoming controlled by self-criticism, rigidity, or the need to control every outcome. - How to Overcome Perfectionism & Self-Criticism — Real Pod With Dr. Ellen Hendriksen
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Covers the roots of perfectionism, overachievement, feeling as though you must earn your worth, self-criticism, overplanning, and finding a middle ground between healthy growth and relentless pressure. - Breaking Up With Perfectionism — WorkLife With Adam Grant
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Organizational psychologist Adam Grant discusses how he reduced his own pursuit of flawless performance while keeping his motivation and standards. Useful for people who worry that reducing perfectionism means becoming lazy or mediocre.
TED & TEDx Talks About Perfectionism
- Our Dangerous Obsession With Perfectionism Is Getting Worse — Thomas Curran
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Social psychologist Thomas Curran examines the growing pressure to look, perform, and live perfectly and how those expectations can affect mental health. Particularly useful for understanding the social and cultural side of perfectionism. - Perfectionism Holds Us Back. Here’s Why — Charly Haversat
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Examines the “If I can’t do it perfectly, why do it?” mindset and how fear of failure can produce avoidance, rigidity, and missed opportunities. - Is Perfectionism Just Procrastination in Disguise? — Jon Youshaei
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Explores how trying to produce flawless work can prevent people from producing anything at all. The talk argues for creating, testing, failing, and improving through repetition instead of waiting for perfect conditions or perfect output. - Breaking Up With Perfectionism — Adam Grant
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Organizational psychologist Adam Grant explores how to stop chasing flawless performance while still maintaining a strong drive to achieve. Particularly useful for high achievers who fear that lowering perfectionistic standards means losing ambition. - Perfectionism: The Battle of Never Feeling Quite Good Enough — Julia LeGallo
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A personal TEDx talk about constantly working harder while remaining dissatisfied with your achievements. It explores the emotional cost of never allowing anything you accomplish to count as enough. - How Perfectionism Fails Us — TED Playlist
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A collection of talks about perfectionism, fear of failure, improvement, achievement, and learning to value progress and imperfect attempts alongside major successes.
