understanding fear
199
formances in a way that smells of perfectionism. Cognitive
behavioural science has shown a connection between perfec-
tionism and fear. Perfectionists who look to their audience to
determine how well they did experience more anxiety.
If you have any of the following habits then you could be a
perfectionist:
Taking failure to heart.
Ruminating over failure, even a long time after it has passed.
Turning one failure, ‘I failed on this occasion,’ into a generali-
sation, ‘I am a failure’.
Treating ambiguous or neutral feedback as negative.
Perfectionists rely heavily on their success to feel a sense of self-
worth, so if they fail or are worried that they will fail, they will
experience a high degree ...