Chasing the Finish Line: Understanding the Perfectionism Scale

Imagine you're running a race. You've trained for weeks. The path is long, but you're focused—you've set your pace, your lungs are burning, and your legs are heavy, but you're pushing through because the finish line is in sight.

Except… every time you get close, the finish line moves.
You sprint harder.
It moves again.

You begin to wonder: What if there is no finish line? What if I’ll never get “there”?

This is what perfectionism often feels like. It turns effort into an endless race—where 100% still doesn’t feel like “enough,” and the goalposts of success keep drifting just out of reach.

The Perfectionism Scale: A Different Kind of Measurement

Unlike typical scales that measure how much progress we’ve made, the perfectionism scale measures how flawed we think our progress is. It might look something like this:

• 0% – 49%: “Failure”

• 50% – 99%: “Not quite there”

• 100%: Still not enough

• Imagined perfect: The goal that never stays still

Even when we’ve hit all the marks, met all the deadlines, crossed every “T,” we may still hear a voice whisper, “Could’ve done more.”

The tricky part? This scale doesn’t reflect reality. It reflects expectation—unrealistic expectation. And the finish line isn’t based on facts. It’s based on how we feel about our performance, and how tightly we grip the idea of flawlessness.

When Progress Doesn’t Feel Like Progress

In therapy and in life, we often see people measuring themselves not by what they’ve accomplished, but by what they didn’t do perfectly. That means a student can get a 95% and fixate on the 5% they missed. A parent can spend all day caring for their kids and still feel like they “should’ve done more.”

In this internal race, “good enough” never feels like a win. It feels like settling.

But here’s the irony: Perfectionism doesn't push us forward. It wears us out. It turns our goals into pressure, and our efforts into exhaustion.

The Race You’re Allowed to Walk

What if the race wasn’t about reaching an ever-moving line?
What if it was about showing up?

• Pacing yourself.

• Resting when needed.

• Noticing the scenery.

• Letting go of comparison.

• Being okay with enough.

It’s not laziness to stop chasing “perfect.” It’s courage. And it’s a mindset shift—from constant striving to intentional growing.

In reality, there’s no gold medal for burnout. No trophy for chronic stress. Just a deeper and deeper hole of “not enough.”

And once we step off the perfectionism scale, we start realizing something freeing: we were already “enough” long before we crossed any finish line.

A Thought to Leave You With

If perfectionism has been running the show, ask yourself:

• Who set the finish line I’m chasing?

• What would it feel like to recognize my effort without grading it?

• Am I measuring myself by how far I’ve come—or how far I still have to go?

You don’t have to win every race.
You just have to learn when it’s okay to stop running.