Imperfect

There's a questionnaire in the back of Boice's book, designed to help you figure out which kind of problem writer you are. He keeps referring to these types of problems throughout the book, which I found frustrating because I couldn't possibly imagine which kind of problem writer I was. Procrastinator, probably. Impatient, sure. Certainly not Perfectionist - he described a perfectionist as one who could not stop editing a paper and just submit it. That's not me at all, I thought - I submit crap all the time.

Last night I decided to sit down and take the damn quiz. There are seven areas of dysfunction: Work apprehension, Procrastination, Writing apprehension, Dysphoria, Impatience, Perfectionism, and Rules. I calculated my scores and compared them to the reported averages in the book. Turns out I am pretty average for the first four. I scored high for Impatience, no surprise. But the highest score I had by far, which was MUCH higher than the average score, was Perfectionism.

Really? No. Are you sure? Because that's not me. At all.

Then I took this online Perfectionism test on Psychology Today. My score? 82 out of 100.

According to this test, you are bound by the cuffs of perfectionism. You set standards that can never be met. Most likely, this tendency is making you suffer. And needlessly. It is time that you tuned into your perfectionist side and diluted it. While a desire to do well, to do your best work, and to explore your full potential can give you a sense of satisfaction and personal fulfillment, you have to learn when it is 'good enough'.

"Bound by the cuffs of perfectionism"?? Harsh.