“The best is the enemy of the good.”
Voltaire

Do you push yourself to be the best? After all, one of the ways you got to UCSF was to be at the top of your class in college. Although everyone at UCSF is a top student, it may be difficult to accept obtaining an average or below average test score. For some students, an "average" performance feels like failure, because to them, "average" equals "second-rate." Even a failure on a test simply means we need to learn the material better. While we all strive toward excellence, some individuals have great difficulty accepting a personal role of less than "number one." These people are considered perfectionists… and many medical students fit this description.

"Setting high personal standards and goals and working hard to attain them is appropriate," says David Burns, M.D. "However, perfectionists set excessively high goals and strive compulsively to achieve them, punishing themselves for mistakes and lowering self-esteem because they can't reach these impossibly high goals." Aiming to be the best all the time virtually guarantees feelings of failure.

So what's the answer? First of all, be aware of the difference between setting high personal standards and perfectionism. Setting high standards involves the pursuit of success and realistic goals, while perfectionism involves setting impossibly high goals and is motivated by the fear of failure. Secondly, learn to focus on your successes rather than perceived failures. Perfectionists typically view success as an "avoidance of failure." As a result, they rarely gain satisfaction from their achievements. Thirdly, mistakes and failures are important opportunities for learning, if we can appreciate them. Finally, your worth as a person is not determined by your accomplishments alone. Feelings of self-worth are also affected by interpersonal relationships, physical health, spiritual beliefs, and emotional well-being. Perfectionists often focus on only one area of their life to the exclusion of others.

The Medical Student Well-Being Program can help you discover the difference between self-defeating perfectionism and the healthy pursuit of excellence. For more information, contact us by phone at 415.476.0468 or email at MSWBP@medsch.ucsf.edu.

Adapted from material by the Counseling Center for Human Development, University of South Florida.