#243- The Perfection Trap with Professor Thomas Curran

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This week, Andy interviews Professor Thomas Curran, Department of Psychological and Behavioral Science at the London School of Economics. His writings have appeared in TIME magazine, the Harvard Business Review, the New Scientist, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times just to name a few. He is fresh off launching his debut book, The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough. He also delivered a TedMed talk on the subject which has garnered more than 3 million views. Not surprisingly, he is widely regarded as the world’s leading expert on perfectionism.

Society seems to value the concept of perfectionism, but Professor Curran has a much different take on the subject. Not only does he identify the havoc-wreaking cause underlying perfectionism, he also provides healthy strategies to recognize, overcome, and manage it. Professor Curran even shares what his own battle with perfectionism looks like and how it could have prevented him from rising to his place of prominence on the subject.

Hear how perfectionism almost prevented him from delivering his Ted Talk on the subject and how it almost prevented him from writing one of the most powerful and groundbreaking chapters of his new book.

Maybe…just maybe, if even a world-renowned psychologist, author, and professor struggles with the ill effects of perfectionism, we can learn to treat ourselves with more kindness in our efforts to deal with it as well.

Professor Curran says one of his primary purposes in life is to “bust myths” related to perfectionism, chiefly that it is good for us. Rather than benefit us, it actually blocks us from success and happiness and can result in many adverse psychological issues such as anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation.

He also discusses three dimensions of perfectionism that you will find fascinating; 1) self-oriented perfectionism 2) Socially prescribed perfectionism and 3) Other-oriented perfectionism.

In probably his most controversial assertion, Professor Curran highlights the societal and systemic causes of perfectionism. He argues that individual solutions don’t work when it’s a societal/systemic problem to begin with. When you consider that US students take more than 112 standardized tests from kindergarten to twelfth grade, it’s no wonder that our students focus on these scores and derive self-value (or lack of) from them. Then you add in the influence of social media, and the fact that everyone else seems to have a perfect life leaving us all to wonder why ours is not.

Hopefully, you will be so intrigued and have so many “ah-ha!” moments while listening to this conversation, that you’ll wonder where the hour went. You’ll love Thomas’ affable, humble approach to life and living and buy his book so that you can learn more about how perfectionism may be impacting your life.

Connect With Thomas:
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As well, you can find Thomas' Ted Talk here. Please check it out.