Not Everything Is Picture Perfect

Exactly right, especially in appearance.

Toxic perfectionism doesn’t mean you’re always perfect. It doesn’t mean you only got As in school. Toxic perfectionism means you’ve got a little voice in your head that says nothing less than perfect is acceptable. You judge yourself harshly when you fall short of your (very high) standards. You’ve lost the ability to empathize with yourself or go with the flow, you’re focused solely on whatever scoreboard you’ve built in your brain.

Toxic perfectionism doesn’t mean you’re perfect, it means you feel you *should* be perfect and can’t tolerate situations in which you come up short, even if being imperfect is completely expected and appropriate in the given situation.

People who are affected by toxic perfectionism procrastinate working on a project they deeply care about because they are so overwhelmed with worry that once the project gets underway, their efforts won’t be reasonable enough. They’ll try to think their way out of this by demanding that conditions be “perfect” before they begin, ensuring that they can hide from their fear of being imperfect for a little bit longer.

Different individuals may be affected in different ways. Some are: 

Setting insane goals.

Punishing yourself for being average.

Having a fitness or food obsession.

Bragging about not getting enough sleep.

Spending too much money on the wrong things.

These are just a few ways, toxic perfectionism isn't limited to these.