Crosspost from Huffington Post - 14 Signs your Perfectionism Has Gotten Out of Control

How many of us suffer (and I use that word deliberately) with perfectionism?  What do I mean by suffer?  Being a perfectionist can be a useful tool, right?  Well, yes...but what is the price?  I am sharing an excerpt of the article here, but you can click to get the entire piece on the Huffington Post site.  A colleague of mine shared this piece - definitely worth reading!

By Carolyn Gregoire (excerpt from the original piece)

Here are 14 signs that perfectionism could actually be holding you back -- and simple ways to start letting go.

1. You've always been eager to please.

2. You know your drive to perfection is hurting you, but you consider it the price you pay for success.

3. You're a big procrastinator.

4. You're highly critical of others.

5. You go big or go home.

6. You have a hard time opening up to other people.

7. You know there's no use crying over spilt milk... but you do anyway.

8. You take everything personally.

9. ... And you get really defensive when criticized.

10. You're never quite "there yet."

11. The image below makes you nervous.

12. You take pleasure in someone else’s failure, even though it has nothing to do with you.

13. You get secretly nostalgic for your school days.

14. You have a guilty soul.

In Brene Brown’s conversation with Oprah, she discusses how to overcome perfectionism.   Brown's remedy? Try practicing authenticity. Let others see you, exactly as you are, and let go of the protecting shield of perfectionism in order to express vulnerability.

"Authenticity is a practice and you choose it every day," she says, "sometimes every hour of every day."