Unhappy? You May Just Be a Perfectionist

The New York Times takes a look at the culture of perfectionism, suggesting that the tenets of the perfectionist—when applied to things like personal relationships or when taken too far at the workplace—can take a serious toll on your happiness. As part of a study at U.C. Davis, employee assistance counselor Alice Provost forced perfectionists to:

Leave work on time. Don’t arrive early. Take all the breaks allowed. Leave the desk a mess. Allow yourself a set number of tries to finish a job; then turn in what you have.

The results? Much to the surprise of the perfectionists, everything continued to function as usual, and much of their perfection-motivated worries weren’t all that important. If you’ve got similar perfectionist inclinations—or you’re just in the spirit of the holidays—give yourself a break and give this exercise a go. While you’re at it, here are 10 other ways to defeat brain drain. Photo by ewitch.