Perfectionism Quotes - Page 5

• Perfectionism is a perpetual flight into an illusory future that cannot be attained.

  Gary Zukav

  Flight, Perpetual, Illusory

  FaceBook post by Gary Zukav from Dec 29, 2014

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• Just as God's love entered the world, thereby submitting to the misunderstanding and ambiguity that characterize everything worldly, so also Christian love does not exist anywhere but in the worldly, in an infinite variety of concrete worldly action, and subject to misunderstanding and condemnation. Every attempt to portray a Christianity of 'pure' love purged of worldly 'impurities' is a false purism and perfectionism that scorns God's becoming human and falls prey to the fate of all ideologies. God was not too pure to enter the world.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Christian, Fall, Fate

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• What if you wake up some day, and you're 65... and you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life?

  Anne Lamott

  People, Creative, What If

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• [perfectionism leads to] a tendency to apologize preemptively for one's efforts, knowing from experience that there's sure to be something wrong with them.

  William Westney

  Knowing, Effort, Apologizing

  William Westney (2003). “The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self”

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• Mastery requires endurance. Mastery, a word we don’t use often, is not the equivalent of what we might consider its cognate—perfectionism—an inhuman aim motivated by a concern with how others view us. Mastery is also not the same as success—an event-based victory based on a peak point, a punctuated moment in time. Mastery is not merely a commitment to a goal, but to a curved-line, constant pursuit.

  Sarah Lewis

  Commitment, Often Is, Views

  Sarah Lewis (2014). “The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

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• Perfectionism is a time waster - 20 percent of the effort you put into any project accomplishes 80 percent of the outcome - so this is a time to ask yourself when good enough is enough and then stop.

  Mira Kirshenbaum

  Positive, Effort, Outcomes

  Mira Kirshenbaum (1999). “The Gift of a Year: How to Give Yourself the Most Meaningful, Satisfying, and Pleasurable Year of Your Life”, Dutton Adult

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• If it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly. (on not perfectionism to put things off) .

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Inspirational, Not Perfect, Ifs

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• At times failure is very necessary for the artist. It reminds him that failure is not the ultimate disaster. And this reminder liberates him from the mean fussing of perfectionism.

  John Berger

  Mean, Artist, Perfection

  John Berger (2011). “A Painter of Our Time”, p.168, Vintage

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• I slowly realized that perfectionism just not that important. What's more important is to try to love the people around you. Whatever that means at a particular time is the best you can do.

  Veronica Roth

  Mean, People, Important

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• Directing is a mixture of compromise and perfectionism. When you lose the judgment of which is more important at any particular moment, you're time is over. They find you out and send you packing.

  Danny Boyle

  Important, Mixtures, Compromise

  "Danny Boyle’s Portrait of a Man". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. October 19, 2015.

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• Film industry is a pretty brutal business. If you fall too far behind, all of the perfectionism in the world won't save you.

  Danny Boyle

  Fall, World, Film

  "Danny Boyle’s Portrait of a Man". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. October 19, 2015.

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• I took everything really seriously and was overly sensitive about things, and I think that's rooted in perfectionism.

  Kelly Carlin-McCall

  Thinking, Sensitive, Rooted

  Source: www.psychologyart.com

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• My path to poetry was slow and meandering. When I eventually found my way to graduate school at 29, making a life as a poet seemed like a bohemian fantasy. But maybe my zigzagging trajectory is just an excuse for tardiness, when fear is really the root of any reason I might give. My perfectionism and pace are certainly driven by fear that a poem is imperfect or incomplete. More significantly, my struggle to fully dedicate myself to poetry was a fear of failure.

  Robin Beth Schaer

  Struggle, School, Giving

  Source: therumpus.net

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• I love that, for Kanye [West], there's no difference between the epic and the personal. That makes him sound like a really grandiose douche - which, I don't think anyone, himself included, could contest - but at the same time, it's really amazing. I love the scope of his perfectionism.

  David Longstreth

  Thinking, Epic, Differences

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• When it comes to women, our perfectionism gives us a lot of grief. Women want to be super moms, super partners and super performers at work - and all at the same time. That's stressful.

  Kristina Schroder

  Mom, Grief, Giving

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• Europe seems a little softer, but in America it's harsh. In L.A., where I live, it's all about perfectionism.

  Alanis Morissette

  Europe, America, Littles

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• Perfectionism means that you try desperately not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived. Clutter is wonderfully fertile ground - you can still discover new treasures under all those piles, clean things up, edit things out, fix things, get a grip. Tidiness suggests that something is as good as it's going to get. Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation, while writing needs to breathe and move.

  Anne Lamott

  Moving, Writing, Mean

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• Perfectionism doesn't believe in practice shots. It doesn't believe in improvement. Perfectionism has never heard that anything worth doing is worth doing badly--and that if we allow ourselves to do something badly we might in time become quite good at it. Perfectionism measures our beginner's work against the finished work of masters. Perfectionism thrives on comparison and competition. It doesn't know how to say, "Good try," or "Job well done." The critic does not believe in creative glee--or any glee at all, for that matter. No, perfectionism is a serious matter.

  Julia Cameron

  Jobs, Believe, Practice

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• I have to say that I've always believed perfectionism is more of a disease than a quality. I do try to go with the flow but I can't let go.

  Rowan Atkinson

  Letting Go, Trying, Quality

  "Fears of a clown" by Amy Raphael, www.theguardian.com. March 30, 2003.

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• perfectionism is the enemy of art. Since art is essentially divine play, not dogged work, it often happens that as one becomes more professionally driven one also becomes less capriciously playful.

  Erica Jong

  Art, Play, Perfection

  Erica Jong (1985). “Parachutes & kisses”, Signet

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• A wonderful pastor I know once told me, "Perfectionism is the highest order of self-abuse." So now I try to remind myself that if I engage in perfectionism, I am abusing myself. Period.

  Ashley Judd

  Self, Order, Abuse

  "Ashley's Secret Life". Interview with Laurie Sandell, www.glamour.com. July 9, 2006.

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• Intense pain often pushed me to make changes. The pain of the eating disorder pushed me into recovering from eating-disordered behaviors, and then the emotional turmoil I experienced without those behaviors (not knowing how to cope with perfectionism, feelings, and life in general) took me even further, so that I ultimately found serenity.

  Jenni Schaefer

  Pain, Emotional, Knowing

  Jenni Schaefer (2009). “Goodbye Ed, Hello Me: Recover from Your Eating Disorder and Fall in Love with Life”, p.5, McGraw Hill Professional

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• If you are a real perfectionist, you can't finish any job! We, the mortals, we don't have enough time to be perfectionist! Perfectionism is the art of immortals!

  Mehmet Murat Ildan

  Art, Jobs, Real

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• Perfectionism is boring and doesn't exist-to strive for it makes you uninteresting.

  Eva Mendes

  Boring, Strive

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• When the good student chooses the honest path, free of perfectionism and faking, music study becomes something refreshingly new: a calm oasis of self-acceptance for those who are so used to driving themselves and trying to please others.

  William Westney

  Acceptance, Oasis, Self

  William Westney (2006). “The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self”, p.135, Amadeus Press

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