Grace Under Pressure

Some students suffer from perfectionism, which can come across in several ways. One way is that a child has to make everything perfect and has negative self-talk when it’s not. They beat themselves up because nothing is ever good enough. They put tremendous pressure and stress on themselves. They need to learn that learning is a process and that sometimes good is good enough.

Other students want things to be so perfect that they are afraid to attempt anything they aren’t sure they can do easily and perfectly. They don’t look at failure as part of learning. They look at failure as defining who they are. These students need to be taught resilience and that a FAIL is just a First Attempt In Learning. Through effort, they can turn a failure into success if they choose. It will take work, but turning failure to success can be fun.

Both of these kinds of perfectionists need to learn to control their amygdala through breathing, visualizing success, and positive self-talk.