6 Signs Your Perfectionism Is Ruining Your Vacation

For many people, an upcoming vacation is exciting because it gives them something to look forward to throughout the year. Maybe they get to explore a place away from home or, if they’re traveling with family, perhaps their trip is an opportunity to connect with loved ones. Maybe their vacation is a desperately needed respite from work.

But for perfectionists, an upcoming trip can be a source of stress — and the vacation itself might be hard to enjoy as a result. Perfectionists are known to put a lot of pressure on themselves and feel at fault for things that aren’t actually their mistake. This makes vacations, which are often full of curveballs, potentially challenging times.

Does this sound familiar? Here are some signs that perfectionism is ruining your trip and what you can do about it, according to therapists:

1. You may be inflexible when plans change.

“When something doesn’t go as planned, a perfectionist might have a lot of trouble adapting,” said Jennifer Chaiken, a licensed marriage and family therapist who co-owns The Therapy Group in Pennsylvania and co-hosts the ShrinkChicks podcast.

That’s because perfectionism can give you a false sense of control and “a level of rigidity,” she added. Perfectionists may feel like a “perfectly planned” vacation — with tours, meals and outings arranged down to the minute — will mean that nothing can go wrong, but this certainly isn’t the case.

“In reality, as we know, nothing is perfect and there is so much that is out of our control,” Chaiken said.

For example, a perfectionist might have “this perfect idea of an excursion that they want to take,” like visiting a waterfall and taking an ideal photo next to it, she said — but ″if the weather isn’t nice, perfectionists may