Perfectionism and fear of mistakes

Perfectionism looks like high standards, but often it is fear: of mistakes, of judgement, of not being enough. It shows up as never submitting work until it is perfect, rewriting a message ten times, not trying things you might fail at, or feeling that 95% is a failure.

High standards are useful; the problem is when anything less than perfect feels like proof you are not good enough. Try experiments: submit something at "good enough", send the email after one check, try a task you might do badly. Notice what actually happens. Usually the consequences are much smaller than you feared.