You know, you can have high standards and strive and be happy and healthy and live a very

contented life and be successful. It doesn't have to come within security and doubt.

Only perfectionism graphs those two together.

Okay, welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast.

I'm your host, Dr. Michael Jervé, by trade in training, a high performance psychologist,

and I'm really excited to welcome Thomas Curran to the podcast for this week's conversation.

Okay, have you ever felt the overwhelming pressure to be perfect in this imperfect world that we're

in? Of course you have. And so there's this underlying drive for some of us to excel in every

aspect of life, from work to relationships to your craft, to how you show up in social media,

to how you engage in social settings, even with your family, like this need for perfectionism is

pervasive. And Thomas has dedicated his career to understanding the complex and often elusive

personality trait of perfectionism. So he's a professor of psychology at the London School of

Economics, and Thomas' research delves deep into the roots of perfectionism, exploring how it is

developed and its profound impact on overall mental health. He had a very influential TED Talk

on perfectionism. It garnered over three million views, and his research has reached the pages

of esteemed publications like Harvard Business Review, New Scientist. He's been featured on CNN.

And a testament to the urgency of this topic in today's society for so many of us, he's also the

author of the perfection trap. This is a must read. This is for anyone who's seeking a deeper dive

into the psychology of perfectionism who knows the pains of it is looking for freedom from it

of a more authentic life, a deeper way of living. It's a nice easy read, evidence-based research

back. I think you're going to love it. So in our conversation, Thomas and I explore the depths,

the costs of perfectionism. We unravel what it is, and what it means, and why it's on the rise in

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