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176 End Procrastination Now!
Interaction Process Comments
Bill: And how do you feel when you think Check for a connec-
that way? tion between thinking
and emotions.
Ted: Tense, depressed, miserable.
Bill: It sounds like you have high standards for Inference from data.
yourself.
Ted: I’ve always had high standards. My mom
used to call me Mr. Perfect.
Bill: When you think about the performance A check on a potential
review and view yourself falling below standard, self-concept issue.
what do you think about yourself?
Ted: (Pause) Like a loser and a failure.
Bill: Perfectionist thinking involves the idea that Raises question about
if you don’t do well enough at what you think you perfectionist thinking
should do, you’re a flop. Others will think ill of and its relationship
you. When you think that way, do you feel anx- to a performance
ious about the possibility of performing poorly? anxiety.
Ted: That sounds about right.
Bill: So, you’re either a winner or a loser. Is there Expand on the binary
anything that may lie in between? thinking issue and
show an alternative
perspective.
Ted: (Laughs) A partial loser?
Bill: It’s better to laugh about what lies in be- Summarize.
tween than to take the extremes seriously. But Continue to question
you can also consider that you are a person who perfectionism.
is challenged to find a way to break through a
procrastination barrier. Meeting the challenge
becomes the issue. That gets you away from
making character generalizations about yourself,
and this may help you fix your focus onto solving
the problem. By the way, is there any universal
law, other than Ted’s law, that requires you to
be perfect?
Ted: No. I hadn’t thought about it that way. Can I
appeal Ted’s law and change it?