In 1999, NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter because one engineering team used metric units while another used imperial. The spacecraft was flawless in design, yet it disintegrated in the Martian atmosphere due to a small but devastating mistake. That incident has lived on in science and engineering, but it’s a reminder that even the most ambitious quests for perfection can collapse under the weight of human error. 

Perfection has long been treated as both a badge of honor and a curse. Books, articles, and mental health experts warn us about its dangers: heightened anxiety, depression, burnout, even suicidal thoughts. It’s the trait we’ve been told to tame if we want to live balanced lives. And the data shows, perfectionism, at least in its harshest form, takes a toll.  

The highest achievers in sports, business, and academia are often celebrated for their relentless standards until those same standards begin to break them. Psychologists define perfectionism as the tendency to set excessively high goals, often paired with intense self-criticism. And in recent decades, a large body of research has shown its dark side: perfectionism is closely linked with anxiety, depression, and burnout. Some studies even tie it to suicidal thoughts. Psychologists Thomas Curran and Andrew Hill, for example, have shown how unhealthy perfectionism often leads to job burnout and feelings of inadequacy. 

Is perfectionism always destructive, or can it be harnessed for good? The answer, as psychologists now argue, is more complicated than the simple “perfectionism is bad” narrative we’ve grown used to hearing. In fact, some evidence suggests there may be two distinct paths; one that drags people into endless frustration, and one that allows them to thrive under high standards. 

The distinction was first made clear in 1978, when psychologist Don E. Hamachek separated “normal” from “neurotic” perfectionists. The first group, he explained, sets challenging but realistic standards, takes pleasure in their efforts, and knows when to let go. The second group demands the impossible, finds little joy even in success, and struggles to relax their standards under any circumstance. In other words, one strives with excitement, the other with fear. 

A recent meta-analysis of 43 studies, covering nearly 10,000 participants, confirmed the costs of unhealthy perfectionism. Andrew P. Hill of York St John University and Thomas Curran of the University of Bath found that those locked in rigid, self-critical perfectionism were far more prone to job burnout. The healthy perfectionists, however, didn’t show the same risk. In fact, striving for high goals, when done with flexibility and self-compassion, sometimes seemed to protect against burnout. As Hill explained, setting high goals is not the problem, it’s how you respond when you don’t reach them. 

This pattern shows up in education too. A 2004 study found no GPA advantage between healthy and unhealthy perfectionists. But the difference lay in satisfaction: students with healthy perfectionism were content with their grades, while unhealthy perfectionists felt they had failed, even when they performed just as well. More telling, those with the positive form reported something researchers called “academic joy.” For them, studying wasn’t just about achievement, it was curiosity and enjoyment. 

In 2011, psychologist Joachim Stoeber dug deeper into this difference by asking students to keep daily diaries. He found that positive perfectionists handled setbacks by reframing them—“well, at least it’ll make a good story one day”—or by laughing at their mistakes. Negative perfectionists, in contrast, internalized failure and saw little humor in it. The result: lower daily satisfaction and heavier emotional burdens. 

Falling Short of Perfection Doesn’t Erase the Value of Striving For it 

What all this suggests is: striving for excellence isn’t the problem. The problem is the inability to forgive yourself when excellence slips through your hands. As Winston Churchill once said, “Perfection is the enemy of progress.” But perhaps a better phrasing for today would be: perfection is fine to aim for, so long as you don’t confuse the miss with failure. Healthy perfectionism looks like the pursuit of excellence fueled by curiosity, discipline, and meaning. Unhealthy perfectionism is driven by fear, comparison, and shame. The difference is in the mindset. 

If Vince Lombardi’s quote holds true, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.”  

That might be the secret to: keep the standards high, but keep the heart light. If a $125 million NASA mission can unravel over a unit conversion, maybe the rest of us can give ourselves a little grace when things don’t go exactly as planned.