Overcoming Perfectionism (Revised & Updated)

Finding the Key to Balance and Self-Acceptance

By: Ann Smith MS LMFT

Narrated by: Janis Daddona

Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Practice makes perfect. Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing. Failure is not an option. In today's perfection-obsessed culture, these are the maxims we live by. Yet, the damage that they cause is stifling. Renowned author and pioneer of codependency treatment Ann W. Smith knows this first hand. Smith has dealt with her fair share of perfectionism and has bared witness to this all too common phenomenon in her professional life, having spent the last thirty years studying the impact compulsive disorders have on individuals and family. While perfectionism lacks much of the stigma attached to today's most common compulsions - smoking, gambling, sex addiction, alcoholism, and drug abuse - many of the negative connotations on self and the family system are the same.

In this revised and updated edition of the original, groundbreaking book Overcoming Perfectionism: The Key to a Balanced Recovery, Smith describes the key differences between overt and covert perfectionism; the role early attachment, temperament, sibling relationships, and life circumstances play in developing this pattern; and how to shift toward a center of balance for a more fulfilling life.

Listeners will learn how to identify and confront the root cause of their problem, how to reveal and accept their essence, and finally, they will learn the importance of forgiveness and letting go. Additionally, listeners discover the key characteristics of a healthy family system, along with the single most important lesson of all - perfection does not exist.

©2013 Ann Smith (P)2013 Wetware Media

Not really on topic

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Focus completey off. Maybe I've been around too long. Seemed like very old information about functional vs. dysfunctional families, codependency etc. Very little specific to perfectionism.

Would you be willing to try another one of Janis Daddona’s performances?

no

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

no

Any additional comments?

delivery was annoying; not sure why.

grateful for this book

I loved it. It was exactly what I needed. As a covert perfectionist coming out of depression and substance abuse I have been dealing with the raw unfogged world with anxiety and feelings of failure. I have struggled to get help and have been trying to rebuild a support network after years of isolation. I did a lot of damage to my long term relationship and for the past month I've been trying to pick up the pieces of my life and figure out who I am. This book hit the nail on the head more that I could have imagined. I now have the tools to discover myself and make changes to better my life.

Returned it

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Narration was like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. The first part of the book seemed to lack focus, even tangential. Admittedly I did not get very far, so maybe things got better later.