Do you find that setting standards too high by trying to do things too perfectly is a source of stress for you? While doing your best is certainly a virtue, perfectionism -- that is, settling for nothing less than perfect -- has a major down side.

Repeating the affirmation "progress, not perfection" will help you to create an attitudinal shift that will better equip you to accept your own limitations as well as those of your family members, friends, and coworkers.

This idea of perfection -- no flaws, no issues, no problems -- seems to infiltrate all our lives at one time or another. And like the yearning for perfection in the workplace, we also yearn for perfection in other aspects of our lives.

With holiday tasks to accomplish, work projects to be finished, and family obligations to be met, realize that something has got to give. Perhaps it's time for it to be your perfectionism.

If you're fed up with feeling crazed, you might want to consider admitting how exhausting, depleting, and defeating your quest for perfection is, and that no matter how perfect you become, you will never satisfy your own critical voice. Perfectionists often set self-defeating goals.

For many years, I have longed for the perfect day -- the one when everything goes right. I have had perhaps 10 of these. Always, my perfect day begins with a restful sleep, from which I emerge to see the sun rising ever so slowly in its colorful canvas outside my bedroom window.

I no longer expect myself to be perfect. Instead, I borrow the verb form of that word. I definitely expect myself to be perfecting at all times.