The Art of Good Enough: How to Overcome the Perfectionism Trap with Thomas Curran

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Chase Jarvis

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4.8 • 641 Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2023

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Professor of Psychology Thomas Curran knows a thing or two about the human mind. He's dedicated a large part of his career to the study of perfectionism and its effect on our lives. In his landmark study, the BBC saw fit to hail him as “the first to compare perfectionism across generations”. Curran's TED Talk on perfectionism has been viewed by millions of people around the world, and his research has been featured in a range of publications from the Harvard Business Review to New Scientist. In this podcast, the subject matter expert and I discuss the psychology of perfectionism, what it means for our lives and health, and how to overcome this debilitating state of mind.

Highlights from our conversation:

Understanding what perfectionism is and why it exists
The root feelings of perfectionism and their sources
The self-perpetuating effects of perfectionism on our lives
Embracing the concept of 'good enough' in an imperfect world

Enjoy!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Perfectionistic people believe at root that they're not good enough, that they're not perfect enough, and that in some way they are flawed, defective, inadequate.
0:08.6	And they learn that belief from an early age, and it carries through them into later life. And I think we have to be really aware that perfectionism can have some really negative outcomes psychologically.
0:20.3	But the productivity
0:21.2	piece I think is really interesting because a lot of people tell me, well, we know perfectionism
0:25.7	has this baggage, but are we going to need a bit of perfectionism to be successful? Well, when
0:31.3	you look at the data, there's no link between the two, right? Perfectionism performance don't
0:35.4	correlate with each other. And that's really perplexing because we know perfectionist work really hard. So what explains that paradox?
0:41.9	Have you ever wanted everything to be perfect? I mean, I got to think that that is maybe a dumb
0:49.8	question because we've all, at some point, wanted the results of our new book, our photograph, our project, our business, the results to be perfect.
1:02.0	And yet we also can sit here as we're listening to this show or, you know, moving through our day.
1:10.0	We know that perfectionism is an illusion.
1:14.9	And that's why today's episode is exceptionally powerful. My guest today is Thomas Curran. Now,
1:24.0	Thomas is a professor of psychology at the London School of Economics.
1:29.0	You might ask, what does economics and psychology have to do with perfection?
1:33.4	And it turns out that it's everything.
1:36.3	Not only is Thomas the author of a landmark study as something hailed the very first study that compared perfectionism
1:48.5	across generations. But he's got a TED talk on perfectionism that have received millions of
1:54.2	views. His research has been featured all over the place from Harvard Business Review to new
1:59.0	scientists to all the TV channels and
2:01.2	whatnot. And at the core, I think, as does Adam Grant, think that Curran is an amazing
2:09.7	global expert on perfectionism, which is, I would call it an epidemic that we've all got
2:16.2	to pay attention to. We all need to heal from this in some
	...

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