Meghan Riordan Jarvis, LICSW, is a psychotherapist and host of the podcast Grief Is My Side Hustle. Her recent book is End of the Hour: A Therapist’s Memoir.
When we fall prey to perfectionism, we think we’re honorably aspiring to be our very best, but often we’re really just setting ourselves up for failure, as perfection is impossible and its pursuit inevitably backfires.