Most Self-Improved

‘The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control’: Part 2

Erin Jensen and Bhavana Chilukuri

Calling all perfectionists: this series is for you! In "The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control,” psychotherapist Katherine Morgan Schafler explains that perfectionists can be great at self-punishment if they don’t meet their expectations. Examples of punishments include critical and negative self talk, self-sabotaging the good in your life, and denying yourself the space and time to experience simple pleasures.

Why would we punish ourselves? What sense does that make? Katherine points to three reasons:

  1. We’re evaluating our worth on our performance, instead of our existence.
  2. We’re not understanding how important being compassionate with ourselves is.
  3. We are incorrectly interpreting self-punishment as personal accountability.

Listen to the episode to learn how you can refrain from beating up on yourself.

More:

Buy the book and read along. The reading schedule is as follows. Read each section prior to listening to the episode.

Nov. 30 episode covers Chapters 1 through 4

Dec. 7 episode covers Chapters 5 through 7

Dec. 14 episode covers Chapters 8 and 9

Find out what type of perfectionist you are with this quick quiz.

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