Last year a friend and I decided to record a brief Youtube series about "The Pressure to be Perfect". We discussed perfectionism, social comparison and self-love. This idea was sparked through many of the conversations we have had about our current culture and specifically the culture of social media. We are living during a time where we judge ourselves harshly because we are comparing ourselves to those around us or the glimpses that we see of their lives. We are constantly holding ourselves to rigid standards because of a pressure to be perfect in all avenues of our lives. I want to further expound upon this topic of the pressure to be perfect and really take an in depth look at all the ways that we as individuals try to achieve a picture of perfection and why this can be harmful.
I've noticed that there has become a trend where perfection must be achieved financially, physically, intellectually, mentally and spiritually. With that being said, I want to break up the topic of perfectionism and discuss each category individually. I want to discuss perfectionism in physical health, perfectionism in mental health, perfectionism in financial well being and perfectionism in spirituality. Although I realize that individuals can be perfectionist in many other areas, I want to discuss these areas specifically because these are areas that I as well as others often find difficulty in finding the balance.
There is a thin line between self-improvement and perfectionism. I fully support self-improvement and wanting to be the best version of yourself but in some cases our strive towards the best version of ourselves is altered by own our distorted standards or the standards that others have set for us. I want to to explore these standards and the reason behind why these standards cause some of us to feel pressured to achieve the unrealistic goal of perfection.
If you want to get a glimpse of the series you can click the video below to gain background about this topic.