I'm a huge perfectionist, and I've always been this way. I tend to bite off more than I can chew, sometimes giving myself massive amounts of work – more work than even need be – just because, for me, if things aren't done perfectly, the exact way that I want them, I won't feel satisfied.

At times, being a perfectionist has been helpful, like when I want to do really well on a school paper or when hours spent working on a project end up paying off. But at the same time, being a perfectionist has made my life difficult. I've spent way more time than I would like to admit on simple, mundane tasks.

Just this morning I was on the phone with my dad; we had a conversation about my habit of perfectionism. Naturally, my dad is a perfectionist, too, but his take on it really opened my eyes.

My dad owns a construction company; being a business owner who is responsible for an army of 25-plus men, my dad needs to be productive, while of course making sure that things get done just the way he likes. If it were up to him, my dad would complete every task himself, just to make sure that things were being done to his standards. But, unfortunately, my dad doesn't have the time or resources to do so.

Here's how he explained it to me: "Sometimes you just have to move things along. You can't over-expend yourself on the simple things, because then you will never even get to the bigger ones."

Talking to my dad made me realize that maybe I too should start looking at perfectionism through those lens. It's good to have vision and it's good to trust yourself and your abilities – but you can't let your habit of perfectionism (or any habit, really) consume you.

So, although it's hard – since I've always been this way – I'm truly going to make a real effort not to get hung up on every little detail. And you should, too.