Personality Flaws

[Another unfinished blog draft found in my blogger draft folder.]

If you ever get in a conversation with people about personality flaws you know that there are some things that are universally acknowledged as being negative. Things like being violent, abusive or excessive knowledge of Star Trek trivia. And then there are those "personality flaws" that people admit to but in a "Yeah, I say it like it's a fault, I'm actually kind of proud of it," sort of way. The kind when people "admit" to it and you outwardly nod your head sympathetically but internally secretly think, "Sheesh, I wish THAT was the worst of my problems." Like when someone admits that they are "OCD," but in a "See, I'm OCD so I could never be as absent-minded or disorganized as you are or have my house as messy as yours. But I'm not judging-- I'm just OCD." We say it's bad but then wear it like a badge of honor.

I have one of those. Yes the dreaded P-word.... perfectionism. Yes, one of those annoying people who admits, "Yeah, I'm a perfectionist," so you can internally think, "Yeah, poor baby. I wish my problem was being too perfect." And honestly, I've worn it like a badge of honor for most of my life. C'mon, we say it's a fault but how harmful can it be to continuously strive to be better.