Summary of Tal Ben-Shahar's The Pursuit of Perfect

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 I became Israel’s youngest-ever national squash champion in 1987. I was thrilled, but I quickly began to think that my accomplishment was not very significant. I decided that to feel truly happy, I needed to win a world championship.

#2 I had always been afraid of failure, and the thought of not achieving my goals kept me up at night. I spent my first years of college in a state of constant stress and unhappiness.

#3 I had always done well in science and math, so I decided to switch my major from computer science to psychology and philosophy. I had not realized until then that so many people struggled with the same issues I did.

#4 The Perfectionist fears failure, whereas the Optimalist accepts it. Perfectionism and optimalism are not distinct qualities that are entirely independent of each other. We should think of perfectionism and optimalism as lying on a continuum, and each of us tends to a lesser or greater degree of one end or the other of the continuum.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822526808

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Insights on Tal Ben-Shahar's The Pursuit of Perfect

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I became Israel’s youngest-ever national squash champion in 1987. I was thrilled, but I quickly began to think that my accomplishment was not very significant. I decided that to feel truly happy, I needed to win a world championship.

#2

I had always been afraid of failure, and the thought of not achieving my goals kept me up at night. I spent my first years of college in a state of constant stress and unhappiness.

#3

I had always done well in science and math, so I decided to switch my major from computer science to psychology and philosophy. I had not realized until then that so many people struggled with the same issues I did.

#4

The Perfectionist fears failure, whereas the Optimalist accepts it. Perfectionism and optimalism are not distinct qualities that are entirely independent of each other. We should think of perfectionism and optimalism as lying on a continuum, and each of us tends to a lesser or greater degree of one end or the other of the continuum.

#5

The Perfectionist and the Optimalist differ in their approaches to achieving goals. For the Perfectionist, failure is not an obstacle on the path to success. But for the Optimalist, failure is an inevitable part of the journey.

#6

The Perfectionist is engaged in wishful thinking and is detached from reality. The Optimalist is grounded in reality: he accepts that the journey will not always be a smooth straight line, that