You do excellent work. It costs you more than anyone realizes.

You hit the deadline, then reread the email you already sent. You get the promotion and immediately find the part you could have done better. From the outside you look impressive and slightly tireless. Inside, nothing is ever quite finished.

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This is perfectionism, and it is not the same as having high standards. High standards make the work better. Perfectionism makes the work later, because starting something you might do badly feels worse than not starting at all.

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What it actually looks like day to day:

You over-prepare for meetings that did not require it.

You delay the project that matters most while you clear small tasks.

You reread, rewrite, and polish long past the point of improvement.

You hear one piece of critical feedback and lose the rest of the day.

You avoid anything you are not immediately good at.

You are hardest on yourself in the hour before you fall asleep.

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What we actually do about it:

We work on the fear underneath it, which is usually about what it would mean about you if the work were ordinary. CBT gives us structure for what you are thinking and doing, and Internal Family Systems lets us work with the part of you that took on the job of keeping you safe by making you flawless. The goal is not lower standards. The goal is doing excellent work without treating every mistake as a verdict on you.