Perfectionist? Meet the High Achiever

"Art knows no limit, and the artists will never achieve perfection." - Bente Borsum

Bente Borsum is a talented actress who performed with the Norwegian National Theatre and was a director of the Norwegian National Drama School. As a mentor and teacher, she works with younger artists who need professional expertise and encouragement. I found this quote, one of many, to be particularly profound because so many talented people hold themselves back from their work, their full creative expression in search of perfection.

There is a distinction to be made between a high achiever and a perfectionist. The former strives for excellence while the later accepts nothing less that the impossible perfection in themselves and their work. High achievers are motivated by their goal. They relish in the challenge and are energized by the quest.

The perfectionists, on the other hand, beat themselves up with criticism and failure in the unattainable goal of perfection. They hold onto their imperfections and wear them as badges of their shortcomings and failures. The perfectionist is often frozen in the fear of presenting anything less than perfect to the world, including themselves.

This is a crime against humanity. When a person holds his or herself back, never finishes a creation because it never reaches perfection, the rest of the world is deprived of that creative expression. We see this not only in the art world, but in the broader perspective of all creations of mankind.

Pressure on children to achieve is rampant, because parents seek much of their status from the performance of their kids. The pressure is delivered in the form of criticism. Children often believe that in order to be loved they must be perfect, an impossible goal to reach. In order to be accepted in their industry, their work must be perfect. The pain of rejection is the pain of being unloved, a fate to be avoided at all costs.

Perfectionists seek the unattainable perfection in themselves. In their failure to achieve perfection they withhold love of self. And hold back their creative expression and take it with them to the grave.

The perfectionist is well served by modeling the motivational energy of the high achiever. A new perspective and a new goal of excellence rather than perfection will revert the downward spiral of self-loathing and the procrastination that comes with it to an renewed zest and passion to create. Inspired innovation is renewed, creative ideas are turned into reality and the mankind and the world benefits in the richness and gifts of the human spirit.

Valery Satterwhite is an Artist Mentor who specializes in empowering creative people in the visual & performing arts to create more profoundly, more prolifically, and more profitably. Empower yourself to trust your intuition, acknowledge your truth, and disarm your fear and self-doubt. Valery spent years developing and implementing a proven unique "Inner Wizard" methodology to empower other creative people to express their full potential. Join now at http://www.InnerWizard.com. Get Free "Artist Resource/Marketing Directory" too!