The grade on the front of your paper dictates your entire life; without perfection, you feel doubts drowning you in its unbounded ocean. Many students have an incessant need to be the best, to always come out on top, often disheartened when their reality doesn’t live up to the preconceived notion of what it should turn out to be. Maladaptive perfectionism encapsulates this feeling; by definition, it pushes students to be obsessed with achieving unattainable or unrealistic goals and ideals.
Picture a ladder laid out in front of you - you cannot see the top - and, after a long while of climbing, you realise there is no top. There’s no end to the ladder, only more stretching up into the abyss, leading you unknowingly and without a clear destination into the nothingness. Your limbs start to ache and, in a slow fashion – one where you can see your fingers slackening around the rail – you start to fall. That fall is characterised by the psychological distress that accompanies these inordinate aims. 93% of college students admitted that their high academic standards decreased their life satisfaction due to lack of self-esteem and depression, as well as never being pleased with their grades.
Being at the forefront of education, maladaptive perfectionism is a plague on our mental health, aiming to drag our expectations to unimaginable heights and ruin us in the process. As it has strong correlations with academic burnout, prioritising yourself is the key.
While bettering ourselves isn't a linear process, striving to use compassionate self-talk and challenge self-judgements is the goal - an attainable goal - to focus your energy on. That may never stop you from wanting to be the best or being displeased, but our expectations don't have to be non-existent, only reachable. Maybe then the end of the ladder will begin to come into view, and you'll be greeted with the idyllic view from the top, your grip secure and certain.