Ministry Perfectionism

Orginally published on Sunday, May 13, 2007 at 3:07 PM
by Todd Rhoades

I don't know about you, but I am many times prone to perfectionism. (Those who know me might disagree) After all, it is vitially important to get everything just perfect 100% of the time, right? For example, if just 99.5% was acceptable...

--Two million documents will be lost by the IRS this year.
--811,000 faulty rolls of 35-mm film will be loaded this year.
--22,000 checks will be deducted from the wrong bank accounts in the next 60 minutes.
--1,314 phone calls will be misplaced by telecommunication services every minute.
--12 babies will be given to the wrong parents each day.
--268,500 defective tires will be shipped this year.
--14,208 defective personal computers will be shipped this year.
--103,260 incoming tax returns will be processed incorrectly this year.
--2,488,200 books will be shipped in the next 12 months with the wrong cover.
--5,517,200 cases of soft drinks produced in the next 12 months will be flatter than a bad tire.
--Two plane landings daily at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago will be unsafe.
--3,056 copies of tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal will be missing one of the three sections.
--18,322 pieces of mail will be mishandled in the next hour.
--291 pacemaker operations will be performed incorrectly this year.
--880,000 credit cards in circulation will turn out to have incorrect cardholder information on their magnetic strips.
--$9,690 will be spent today, tomorrow, next Thursday, and every day in the future on defective, often unsafe sporting equipment.
--55 malfunctioning automatic teller machines will be installed in the next 12 months.
--20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions will be written in the next 12 months.
--114,500 mismatched pairs of shoes will be shipped this year.
--$761,900 will be spent in the next 12 months on tapes and compact discs that won’t play.
--107 incorrect medical procedures will be performed by the end of the day today.
--315 entries in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language will turn out to be misspelled.

Well… the ministry decisions that you make everyday many times are not life-threatening, but it is important the we strive to do our best in everying ‘as unto the Lord’. However, when we become consumed with perfectionism and getting everything just right, we strike up an unhealthy balance that can cause many different things (according to the University of Texas Austin):

--Depression
--Performance anxiety
--Test anxiety
--Social anxiety
--Writer’s block
--Obsessiveness
--Compulsiveness--Loneliness
--Impatience
--Frustration
--Anger

Do you have any of these symptoms? If you’re a closet perfectionist, you can probably relate. Here are some differences between perfectionism and striving to do your best:

A perfectionist sets standards beyond reach and reason. A healthy striver sets high standards, but just beyond reach.

A perfectionist is never satisfied by anything less than perfection; a healthy striver enjoys process as well as outcome.

A perfectionist becomes dysfunctionally depressed when experiences failure and disappointment; but a healthy striver bounces back from failure and disappointment quickly and with energy.

A perfectionist is preoccupied with fear of failure and disapproval––this can deplete energy levels. A healthy striver keeps normal anxiety and fear of failure and disapproval within bounds––uses them to create energy.

A perfectionist sees mistakes as evidence of unworthiness, while a healthy striver sees mistakes as opportunities for growth and learning.

A perfectionist becomes overly defensive when criticized; but a healthy striver reacts positively to helpful criticism.

God knows our weaknesses and inefficiencies. After all, he was in the flesh, just like you and me. It’s something I need to be reminded of everyday so that I can be a healthy striver, rather than a perfectionist…

Your thoughts? Click the ‘comments’ link below to let me know what you think… Are you a perfectionist? How do you deal with your perfectionism?

Have a great week!

Todd

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Hi... I'm Todd Rhoades. I'm a Christ-follower, husband, father and I love to connect leaders with other leaders. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step on Twitter.

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