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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?
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