Perfectionists

There is a breed of students known as the perfectionist.  College is designed to root these students out; to simultaneously reward and punish them.  They receive high grades, high test scores, great job offers, and are held up as an example to the other breeds.  But they also suffer from depression at any failure; they have no time for their loved ones; they procrastinate the worthwhile but not immediate; and they miss out on life.  The challenge for a perfectionist isn’t doing calculus, English, or operating systems homework; it is not reading an irrelevant chapter, it is not doing an insignificant assignment, it is not wasting their time, and life, on the unimportant.  In short the challenge for a perfectionist is learning how to not get things done.

This post is in response to Oaks, "Focus and Priorities", (Ensign, May 2001)