IntroductionMost people would consider having high standards to be a good personality attribute. Show the strength of your character and work ethic when you strive for excellence. These high standards push you to your fullest potential resulting in the best possible results in a person. This can be seen when athletes practice day after day trying to perfect themselves in the field of sport they practice. Perfectionism, on the other hand, is a personality trait characterized by a person striving for flawlessness and excessively high standards of performance. One of the first psychologists to advocate two distinct types of perfectionism, Hamachek, classified people as normal perfectionists and neurotic perfectionists. Normal perfectionists aim to pursue perfection without the uncertainty of compromising their pride, as well as deriving pleasure from their efforts. Unlike normal perfectionists, neurotic perfectionists pursue extremely high standards that are usually unattainable or achievable with excessive effort. It is often wrong to think that to be successful you need to be a perfectionist. However, these people fail to realize that success can be achieved despite their compulsive pursuit of high standards. Frankly, there is evidence to show that, given similar levels of talent, skill, and intellect, perfectionists perform less effectively than their non-perfectionist counterparts. Perfectionists have this idea that mistakes shouldn't be made and mistakes made will result in them being a failure or a terrible person for letting others down. This method of thinking imposes a fear of failure on perfectionists, causing them a lot of stress and disappointment as they are unable to achieve their…half-paper goals…which seem unlikely to generate enormous distress or dissatisfaction. Point: Judge your self-worth by meeting these standards. Perfectionists with low self-esteem doubt their ability to achieve established standards and may possess the ability to give up attempts to achieve them for a time. These individuals are likely to interpret an unachieved goal as a reflection of their inadequacy and inability. The selfWorks Cited Flett, GL & Hewitt, PL (2002). Perfectionism: theory, research and treatment. Washington: American Psychological.Peter J Bieling, Anne L Israeli, Martin M Antony, Is perfectionism good, bad or both? Examining models of the perfectionism construct, Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 36, Issue 6, April 2004, Pages 1373-1385, ISSN 0191-8869, http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/S0191-8869(03)00235-6.