A significant number of people have a personality trait that makes them pursue flawlessness. Known as perfectionists, they can feel severely disturbed by even the smallest mistakes and errors, which often make their lives quite challenging.Not sure if you are one? The pictures you’ll find below are a great test to find that out. If you cringe at every single one, chances are that you have a perfectionist hiding inside of you.
#1 This Chandelier At A Restaurant I Ate At Bothers Me So Much
I’ll be honest, I lost my appetite.
#2 Faux Tile Done
I saw it in the bathroom at the nail salon where I got a pedicure.
#3 I Got A New Faber-Castell Colour Pencils Today And I Saw This Pencils Label
It’s been bothering me for hours.
When we said that a significant number of people are plagued by perfectionism, studies have found that the actual number is over 85%. And it seems to be on the rise, as research conducted between 1989 and 2016 found that levels of perfectionism in college students increased by 10%. It also revealed that perfectionism caused by societal pressure increased at twice the rate.
“These findings suggest that recent generations of college students have higher expectations of themselves and others than previous generations,” explained the lead author of the study, Dr. Thomas Curran. “Today’s young people are competing with each other in order to meet societal pressures to succeed and they feel that perfectionism is necessary in order to feel safe, socially connected and of worth.”
#4 My Puzzle Is Missing One Piece, But Has A Duplicate Of Another Piece
#5 I Declare War On The Temperature People. Ruined The Perfect Photo
#6 At My Parents House
Younger people also feel the urge to maintain perfection because of their social media use. They are pressured to be perfect in comparison to others whose lifestyles and appearances are portrayed as flawless online.
Parents also contribute to the rising perfectionism, as their behaviors have a huge influence on their children’s habits, values, beliefs, and self-image. Those caregivers who demand excellence or are perfectionists themselves, unknowingly, can encourage their children to grow up as people who pursue high standards and refuse to settle for anything that doesn’t seem up to par.
Perhaps they pushed their kids to be the best they could be (even if it’s with good intentions), or maybe they made their kids feel like no matter what they do, they aren’t doing it well enough.
#7 My Husband Got Me Some Gifts To Help Challenge My OCD In Small, Manageable Ways
I don’t know what I find more upsetting: the lopsided notebook or the lack of alignment on the dots of the die.
#8 I Get Mad Every Time I Walk Past This
#9 I Know You Felt The Same Pain Before
While the drive for excellence can result in self-discipline, ambition, and exceptional work quality, it can also lead people to self-sabotage. The desire for perfection can cause poor time management and procrastination.
A perfectionist can become so worried about doing things flawlessly that they put off doing anything at all. The fear of failing can also be paralyzing, which makes doing things take much longer. It also stifles creativity, increases self-doubt, and prevents taking on new challenges.
#10 The Door Of This House
#11 This Floor Alignment
This is The floor at my school. The only place where the alignment is off, further in the corridor the alignment is perfect.
#12 This Christmas Tree
All of this puts a lot of stress on a person, leading them to burnout, overextension, and distress. This may translate into relationships, too, as perfectionists, especially other-oriented ones, expect the people around them to be perfect and are highly critical of those who don’t meet their standards. They might make critical comments as well that, in the long run, cause frustration and resentment and, as a result, hinder relationships.
#13 Almost Perfect
#14 Whoever Made This Clearly Shouldn’t Have
#15 This Manhole Cover
The other two main types of perfectionists—self-oriented and socially prescribed—tend to place excessively high expectations on themselves and not as much on others. Self-oriented perfectionists put a lot of high demands on themselves and measure their worth and satisfaction by external achievements. They are often highly motivated, conscientious, and prone to obsessive thinking, anxiety, and worrying.
Socially prescribed perfectionists put similar pressures on themselves because they believe that other people expect them to be flawless, and if they fail to meet these standards, they will be very critical of them. This can lead to them having low self-esteem, which they hide behind self-deprecating humor.
#16 Maintenance Replaced A Lightbulb Today
And honestly it might bother me enough to go buy three matching ones myself. Good grief.
#17 Light-Switch Is Installed And It Fits Perfect
#18 Every Sink In This Bathroom Has A Different Faucet
Perfectionism isn’t a medical condition, but perfectionist tendencies can overlap with or cause certain mental health disorders, like obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders, and social anxiety. If a person notices that their perfectionism feels more like a burden and less like a motivator, it might be a good idea to find some coping strategies to prevent the drive for flawlessness from consuming one’s life.
#19 Brand New Ketchup. Taller Bottle, Same Volume, No Longer Fits In Cupboard
#20 Mildly Infuriating Level : Refund
The waffles are probably not very interesting hahah because the results aren’t too bad. At least still looks like a mini waffle. But it probably doesn’t look good either… I’m not a very good waffle maker.
I actually don’t mind keeping it! But still trying my best to get a refund or send me a new set of properly mirrored pans.
#21 This Shelf Setup That Makes It Nearly Impossible To Grab A Jar Of Salsa
The first step towards managing perfectionism is to become aware of the thoughts that fuel such tendencies, says Jason Drake, a licensed clinical social worker. He suggests journaling, as it can help to identify thoughts and behaviors of perfectionism.
Every time you grapple with it, try to write down any thoughts that come to mind when you feel you need to do something flawlessly, whether they’re rational or not. “Once you identify the thoughts, themes, and behaviors, then you can start to change them,” explains Drake.
#22 I’m Annoyed Every Time I See This
#23 How Papa John’s Cut This Pizza
#24 Why?
Perfectionist thoughts are often about feeling not good enough. So try to alter them with positive self-talk, like saying to yourself, “It’s okay to feel this way, I’m doing my best,” or “I’ve totally got this.”
Other practices that can help cope with perfection are accepting your mistakes and adopting a good-enough mindset. Try to understand that making a mistake is not the end of the world. It’s actually the opposite. An error expands our world by allowing us to grow, learn, and do better. So try to enjoy the challenge you face and learn from it instead of beating yourself up about it.
#25 Door Handle
They are both left doors.
#26 The Picture Speaks For Itself
Wow, and also the person’s house I was in with this light didn’t even bother fixing it! Which makes me infuriated.
#27 Newly Renovated
Often, perfectionists establish unrealistic goals that make them stressed. So to combat it, they should set more achievable tasks for themselves and break them down into smaller, more manageable tasks that can lead to more feelings of accomplishment and fewer feelings of failure and anxiety.
#28 This Poster At Work Bothers Me Everyday. Once You See It, You Can’t Unsee It
It was the fact the fingers don’t match. But now I see a willy and can’t unsee it thanks to reddit comments. I hate the poster more now.
#29 Who Needs A Perfectly Useful Drain?
#30 Mildly Infuriating Lights In A Hotel
#31 How This TV Isn’t Centered On The Wall
#32 This One Made My Eyes Bleed
#33 Why?
#34 I Just Bought These Books And Why Is 2 Uneven
Seriously I ordered a replacement.
#35 The Alignment Of These Doorknobs In My New Apartment
This door is actually the entrance to my bedroom, when I am home next I will be sure to do some closer investigating. Hopefully it has just been installed upside down/backwards which would be an easy fix! Thanks for the pointers friends, all I see when I look over at night are these two knobs staring me down with their imperfections.
#36 I See This Every Day And It Drives Me Mad
The rest of the path is perfectly normal – but this one section is completely out of order, like someone did this and now it lives in my head rent free every day.
#37 The Way These Lights Are Aligned
#38 The Design Of This Bathroom Wall. It Is Very Disorienting
#39 This Unevenly Distributed V-Shape
#40 As You Love To Hate Broken Patterns So Much. I Ride My Bike Across It When I Do Groceries
I live in the Netherlands and this is in Beek en Donk and believe it might be in the Beek section of.
#41 This Is Really Bothering Me In My New Flat
#42 Milk Carton Perfectly Done, Boss
#43 My Dad Does This To Avoid Cutting Pepperoni
#44 The Position Of These Comic Books
#45 This Bottle Cannot Stand On Its Own But Will Leak If Left Horizontal
#46 Planted The Palm Tree Near The Light Boss
#47 Would This Bother You?
Our leaning tower of bookshelf. Been leaving going on three years and it leans more with each passing year. No one’s bothered to replace it. No one’s bothered to figure out how to straighten it. It’s actually quite funny, “huh, does it look like it’s leaning more to you?”
#48 Thread Ran Out Partially Through The Body, And I Replaced It With A Different Spool Of The Same Thread Color From The Same Brand But The Colors Off
I can go over the initial part with the new thread but like bruh…
#49 Was Driving Home And Spotted This Little Gem. Why?
#50 One Wrong Colored Crate Part 2 Electric Boogaloo
#51 This Progress Bar Is Hurting Me Personally
#52 The Armrests Are Uneven In Size
#53 Been Living Here For 22 Years And I Just Noticed The Lights Aren’t Aligned
Also, the door on the right at the bottom of the rug always swings and catches it, its a lost cause in my household.
#54 This Doesn’t Line Up
#55 The Very Off Centre Shelf
#56 The Straw Hole Is Off Center
#57 Mildly Infuriating Door Near Bristol, England
#58 The Alignment Of The Panels In This Elevator
#59 Now That We Sold The House I Can Safely Post This
I noticed the posts shortly after we moved in a couple years ago and was bothered by them every day. But I didn’t say anything to the wife cause she would have made me do more renos.
A couple days before move out she noticed it too.
#60 Bought 16k Dice For A Mosaic, All From The Same Supplier, Supposedly The Same Size… The Black Ones Are ≈1.25% Smaller
I mean, they’re listed as 8mm dice, after some closer research, the white ones are about 7.85mm on average and black 7.57 considering both can be rounded to 8, and we’re talking a difference of 0.28mm here, I’m thinking they aren’t going to take me too seriously… That and I literally searched for hours to find the absolute cheapest source I could since I was buying 16,000. Even 1¢ a piece would be $160. And would you expect better than 0.2mm precision for 1¢/die?
I just expected whatever manufacturing process they used would have high variance die to die, but not color to color.
#61 That One Green Locker Among All The Other Orange Ones
#62 This Almost Perfect Pancake I Made
#63 My Pizza Shaped Playing Cards Aren’t In Perfect Eighths
#64 Who Lives In A Pineapple Under The Sea, This Set Is Not For You If You Have OCD
#65 Almost Gave Up Looking For This Markers Refill Ink Because Of How Vastly Different The Colors Are On The Caps
The ink itself is much more similar to the refill cap, which is the lighter of the two. The refill is a much newer product than the marker I have so they knew the color was off and corrected it.
#66 Don’t Know If This Fits In This Subreddit, But The Rock Was Easily Moveable And Fit In My Palm
#67 Sharing My Easter Cake With Three Friends: One Already Ate His “Equally And Fairly” Share
“See? I cut at right angles!”
#68 Why Would Anyone Do This
#69 Amazon Sent Me The Wrong Size Book In A Trilogy
I’m going to Barnes and Noble tomorrow to hopefully fix this nonsense. My OCD is screeching right now lol. I could order a replacement on Amazon but that takes two days and I don’t wanna look at this for two days. I’m just getting into reading. I’ve bought quite a few books, mostly from the action/adventure, fantasy, and science fiction genres along with a couple horror books.
#70 This Is One Of My Metalophones. The Bar Only Fits This Way
#71 This Tile At My College Is The Only One That’s Vertical Instead Of Horizontal
#72 This Driveway
#73 I Wish I Hadn’t Bothered Aligning Them So I Never Would’ve Noticed
#74 My Eyes Are Bleeding
I must say, it’s an odd style. Or, if the purpose is to hurt my nerves when looking at it, well, purpose accomplished.
#75 Requires 3 AAA Batteries, In The Most Annoying Way Possible
#76 The Way This Sign Is Off Center
#77 The Alignment Of The Tower And The Entrance
#78 The Color Pencils Aren’t Lined Up With The Box Image Ones
#79 This Pot Pie I Made Last Night Makes Me Feel Sad Inside
#80 Just Hung My TV On The Wall, Look How It Fits Perfectly. Can You See Why I’m Mad Now?
#81 Washer (Right) And Dryer (Left) Placement For The House I’m Sitting
#82 This Building’s Towers
#83 Perfect Color Displ-
#84 Building My House And The Concreter Just Finished The Driveway. This Will Bother Me For The Rest Of My Life
#85 If I Could Not See Them At The Same Time I Would Not Care
#86 This Baseball Park
#87 Self Explanatory Oddly Unsatisfying Ketchup Bottle Label
#88 Why, Sprite, Why?
#89 Order Of Fig Spread Came Into Work Today
#90 Domino’s Pizza
#91 Wife And I Got New Silverware For Christmas
I was hoping that I’d be posting on perfectfit or oddlysatisfying but well here we are. Using the same “every other” spacing for all (yes I know I could squeeze it in another space that’s open) at the very end I ended up with a sole leftover.
#92 The Fact That The Stone Circle Is Not Aligned With The Door And The Window
#93 Come On, Starbucks
