One of the drives to perfectionism is the terror of feeling shame.

This can happen if you have a hyper-active shame response, where feeling shame feels like you're dying.

To avoid the chance you feel shame, you hold yourself to an impossible standard, trying to always be above reproach in every single thing you do.

This is an impossible bar to clear!

You'll be miserable, constantly failing to hit it.

On the one hand, you'll never give up and always push yourself, intrinsically, to be better.

On the other hand, you'll be making yourself miserable emotionally, never satisfied with what you've accomplished.