Perfectionism is akin to an insatiable appetite: no matter how much you have (achieved), it’s never enough. Buddhist psychology posits that the cause of suffering is an unremitting striving for more and offers a useful metaphor of a Hungry Ghost (preta in Sanskrit). Pretas are portrayed with bloated stomachs, and necks as narrow as a needle’s eye, so that food cannot pass fast enough to satisfy their desires. Just like perfectionists, pretas are perpetually dissatisfied: the more they want, the emptier they feel.
That’s the thing about incessant striving: it empties us out. Say, you are content with what you have and you don’t want anything else. You are full. Then you see something that you want. So you think that if you could only have what you want, you’d be even fuller and life would be even better, it would be perfect. If you allow this desire to grow into an obsession, soon you’ll feel that what you already have isn’t enough. The desire leads to a loss of contentment.
What happens next is a run-away feedback loop of dissatisfaction: the more you want something that you don’t have, the less you are content with what you have; the less you are content with what you have, the more you want that which you don’t have. And so it goes, round and round, until you find yourself in a knot of suffering.
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From Psych Central's :
3 Types of Perfectionistic Hunger | 360 Degrees of Mindful Living (October 3, 2009)
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