What is perfectionism?
Perfectionism, in psychology, is a personality trait characterized by a person’s striving for flawlessness and setting high performance standards, accompanied by critical self-evaluations and concerns regarding others’ evaluations.
As dancers, we tend to feel the need to be the absolute best we can be and to get every single move we do just right. But what is ‘perfect’ exactly and when does being a perfectionist become too much?
There are two different types of perfectionism, Healthy Perfectionism and Maladaptive Perfectionism:
- Healthy perfectionism – when someone challenges themselves by setting high, but achievable goals.
- Maladaptive perfectionism – when one sets extremely high and unachievable goals.
When someone with Maladaptive perfectionism fails, they then either become completely obsessed with getting it right, or they avoid the exercise all together. A healthy perfectionist would deal with the same failure by learning from their mistakes, staying engaged in the exercise and trying again.
How do you overcome Maladaptive Perfectionism and become more of a Healthy Perfectionist:
- Create realistic and achievable goals for yourself
- Dispute the negative thoughts about yourself (also called our Inner Critic)
- Ensure you are taking breaks and not to “over do” it (rest is good, and healthy and actually makes us better at what we do!)
- When you “fail”, pick yourself and try again (what can you learn from the situation to help you next time?)
- Don’t give up on yourself, or your goals when things get tough (focus on what you have achieved so far, how far you’ve come and the small steps you can take to get where you want to go)
Being perfect is not an attainable goal. There, in fact, is no such thing as perfect. So, instead, create a goal of being the best you can be and doing the best that you can do.
“Don’t waste your time striving for perfection; instead, strive for excellence – doing your best” – Laurence Oliver
There is nothing wrong with trying to improve yourself and your practice, you just have to remember that nobody is perfect, we all make mistakes, we all look and do things differently – and that’s how we learn and grow and what makes the world such an awesome place.
Being a stronger dancer and a better human, striving to be our best technically, but also improving how we think, approach our training and our lives – it’s why we created the Insight Intensive – a summer dance camp that will take your dance training to the next level, with an incredible faculty of teachers. The intensive camp will also focus on life skills and important topics to help build resilience in each participant. Each dance class will include a theme and devote time to subjects like how to handle social media, setting boundaries, managing overwhelm, mindfulness, maintaining a positive body image, and comparison. We can’t wait to grow dancers into strong, confident humans through this intensive dance camp, August 24 to 27, 2020.
