Honours+ Workshop: Perfectly Imperfect; Understanding & Tackling perfectionism

  • Do you keep rewriting an assignment because it could still be better? Put off starting because you’re worried you won’t do it perfectly? Spend far too long on small details, compare yourself to others, or feel like your achievements are never quite enough?

    Perfectionism has a strange reputation: it is often thought of as a strength (“I am a perfectionist” might be the most common answer to job interview questions about one’s weaknesses), but at the same time, it can harm our wellbeing and, paradoxically, our performance and productivity as well. High standards can motivate you to work hard, pay attention to detail, and strive for excellence. But when the pressure to get everything right starts causing procrastination, self-criticism, stress, or fear of failure, perfectionism can get in the way of the very success you're working towards. The question is, how do we find a balance so that we can perform well without compromising feeling well? 

    In this interactive workshop, you'll explore how perfectionism shows up in your own academic and personal life. You'll learn to recognise the difference between healthy striving and unhelpful perfectionistic patterns, identify behaviours that may be holding you back, and experiment with more flexible ways of approaching your goals. 

    Together we will: 

    • clarify what perfectionism is and how it differs from simply having high standards;
    • examine the (often hidden) costs of perfectionism and how perfectionism is maintained in spite of these costs;
    • zoom in on perfectionistic behaviours and the maladaptive rules and thinking styles that fuel them; and
    • discuss techniques to challenge these maladaptive rules and thinking styles and bring about behaviour change. 

    You don't have to stop caring about doing things well. The goal is to learn how to pursue excellence without needing everything to be perfect.
    Available sessions:

     

    • Wednesday 17.02.2027, 13:30-16:30 hrs.

       

    The “Perfectionism” workshop will take place at EDLAB’s Tapijn Building X. Participants will receive a reminder with the exact location two days prior to the session.

     

    Register here for this workshop.

     

     
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  • Why?

    For Honours students, perfectionism can become a barrier to taking intellectual risks, experimenting, and learning from mistakes, especially in a demanding academic environment. If you’re used to setting yourself high standards, it can be difficult to recognise when perfectionism is helping you excel and when it is holding you back. This session gives you practical tools to manage that pressure, take risks, learn from mistakes, and keep growing without feeling that everything has to be perfect.
  • Rena Gatzounis

    Your Workshop Host: Rena Gatzounis (Dr. Gatzounis Coaching)

    Rena is a professional and experienced coach with a strong background in health psychology and behaviour change, and has work experience both within and outside academia. 

    Having previously co-designed health and wellbeing coaching programmes for a digital health app startup and currently coaching and mentoring high-performance university students, Rena has accumulated lots of experience in helping people change. She also teaches about behaviour change in her work as a University Lecturer. 

    ​In her own coaching practice, Rena blends coaching methodologies with evidence-based methods from the fields of cognitive-behavioural and positive psychology.