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How to Understand the Symbolism of Rings

Perfectionism: How Does it Feel?

Perfectionism: How Does it Feel?

Of course we all want to be successful and produce good work in our everyday lives. Setting high expectations can be motivating and quite healthy. However, when taken to the extreme, our productivity can actually decrease. Perfectionists frequently experience many of the symptoms listed below:

• Fear of failure. Perfectionists often equate failure to achieve their goals with a lack of personal worth or value.
• Fear of making mistakes. Perfectionists often equate mistakes with failure. In orienting their lives around avoiding mistakes, perfectionists miss opportunities to learn and grow.
• Fear of disapproval. If they let others see their flaws, perfectionists often fear that they will no longer be accepted. Trying to be perfect is a way of trying to protect themselves from criticism, rejection, and disapproval.
• All-or-none thinking. Perfectionists frequently believe that they are worthless if their accomplishments are not perfect. Perfectionists have difficulty seeing situations in perspective. For example, a "straight A" student who receives a "B" might believe, "I am a total failure."
• Overemphasis on "shoulds." Perfectionists' lives are often structured by an endless list of "shoulds" that serve as rigid rules for how their lives must be led. With such an overemphasis on shoulds, perfectionists rarely take into account their own wants and desires.
• Believing that others are easily successful. Perfectionists tend to perceive others as achieving success with a minimum of effort, few errors, emotional stress, and maximum self-confidence. At the same time, perfectionists view their own efforts as unending and forever inadequate.

The Vicious Cycle of Perfectionism and Self Esteem

If you are a perfectionist, it is likely that you learned early in life that other people valued you because of how much you accomplished or achieved, meaning you may have learned to value yourself only on the basis of other people’s approval. Thus your self-esteem may have come to be based primarily on external standards. This can leave you vulnerable and excessively sensitive to the opinions and criticism of others. In attempting to protect yourself from such criticism, you may decide that being perfect is your only defense. Below is a cycle that perfectionists often find themselves experiencing and some other consequences of perfectionism.

1. First, perfectionists set unreachable goals, failure is inevitable.
2. They fail to meet these goals because the goals were impossible to begin with.
3. The constant pressure to achieve perfection and the inevitable chronic failure reduce productivity and effectiveness.
4. This cycle leads perfectionists to be self-critical and self-blaming which results in lower self-esteem. It may also lead to anxiety and depression.
5. Perfectionists may give up completely on their goals and set different goals thinking, “This time if only I try harder I will succeed.” Such thinking sets the entire cycle in motion again.

Consequences of Perfectionism

• Depression
• Performance anxiety
• Test anxiety
• Social anxiety
• Writer’s block
• Obsessiveness
• Compulsiveness
• Suicidal thoughts
• Loneliness
• Impatience
• Frustration
• Anger

What To Do About Perfectionism

The first step in changing from perfectionistic attitudes to healthy striving is to realize that perfectionism is undesirable. Perfection is an illusion that is unattainable. The next step is to challenge the self-defeating thoughts and behaviors that fuel perfectionism. Some of the following strategies may help:

• Set realistic and reachable goals based on your own wants and needs and what you have accomplished in the past. This will enable you to achieve and also will lead to a greater sense of self-esteem.
• Set subsequent goals in a sequential manner. As you reach a goal, set your next goal one level beyond your present level of accomplishment.
• Experiment with your standards for success. Choose any activity and instead of aiming for 100 percent, try for 90 percent, 80 percent, or even 60 percent success. This will help you to realize that the world does not end when you are not perfect.
• Focus on the process of doing an activity not just on the end result. Evaluate your success not only in terms of what you accomplished but also in terms of how much you enjoyed the task. Recognize that there can be value in the process of pursuing a goal.
• Use feelings of anxiety and depression as opportunities to ask yourself, "Have I set up impossible expectations for myself in this situation?"
• Confront the fears that may be behind your perfectionism by asking yourself, "What am I afraid of? What is the worst thing that could happen?"
• Recognize that many positive things can only be learned by making mistakes. When you make a mistake ask, "What can I learn from this experience?" More specifically, think of a recent mistake you have made and list all the things you can learn from it.
• Avoid all-or-none thinking in relation to your goals. Learn to discriminate the tasks you want to give high priority to from those tasks that are less important to you. On less important tasks, choose to put forth less effort.

Once you have tried these suggestions, you are likely to realize that perfectionism is not a helpful or necessary influence in your life. There are alternative ways to think that are more beneficial. Not only are you likely to achieve more without your perfectionism, but you will feel better about yourself in the process.

Therapy Group Available

Hall Health Mental Health Clinic is offering an ongoing therapy group on Fridays at 10am, to help people struggling with perfectionism and procrastination. If you would like to enroll or get more information, please call 206-543-5030 or email Anil Coumar or Ricardo Hidalgo.

Content used with permission from University of Michigan Counseling Center.
Last updated: 12/10/09

Beat Procrastination by Eliminating Perfectionism

I sometimes wonder if perfection and procrastination are closely related. By definition these two words are worlds apart. But the truth is - Striving for perfection in everything feeds procrastination. And procrastination has killed more hopes and dreams than any other human tendency.

We all procrastinate - it's natural to put things off. The danger is in putting things off until "the time is just right." When that happens you end up dressing procrastination in the sheep's clothing of perfectionism.

At first glance striving for perfection seems like a good idea. In a competitive business environment, being "perfect" may give you an edge over your competition. But if your competition is busy marketing and gaining clients and customers while you're still tying up all of your loose ends, then it really doesn't mater how perfect you are.

In life, it is important to always "better your best." In business, striving to do things better than your competition is a must. Striving for perfection is something that you'll always work for but never achieve. But the good news is, you must stay in motion as you are striving. Therefore, it is impossible for you to "wait" until things are perfect before you set out. Striving for perfection (if there is such a thing) requires you to get in motion. Procrastination is the opposite of getting in motion and that's why "striving" for perfection is not that bad as long as you keep moving toward your goals.

When it comes to growing your business it's getting and staying in motion that are the keys to success. When it come to marketing most successful people will tell you that you're better off "getting it done" and "getting it out there" whether it is perfect or not. I have found that most people are very forgiving of basic mistakes and small errors that don't really effect them one way or the other. If you read this article and catch an error or two you're most likely to still get the message and the simple concept of not letting perfectionism lead to procrastination. See I didn't elect for a perfect article I chose to get this message out so you can benefit in someway.

So if you've got anything going right now that you are over-analyzing it's time to get it done and get it out there. Whether it's a marketing piece, a new website or doing something that will bring you closer to your personal goals. The time will never be "just right." So just get started, get in motion and you can strive for perfection as you go. Just don't get your hopes up on being perfect!

Mike Dolpies (AKA- Mike D.) is the author of: Motion Before Motivation, The Success Secret That Never Fails And Street Smart Persuasion, How to Sell More Using The Power of Your Written and Spoken Words. He speaks for corporations and associations on the topics of Success, Peak Performance and Ethical Persuasion. You can go to his website to read his most recent articles on success and business. http://www.askmiked.com

The Problem of Procrastination

There is a poster that depicts a huge polar bear lying prone on a flue of ice. The caption under it reads, "When I get the feeling to do something, I lie down until the feeling goes away". Such is the sigh of the resigned procrastinator: broken by frustration, unable to catch up, chained by depression and sustained by the simple apathetic response, "I don't care anymore".

Yet most people who procrastinate have not contentedly handed in their resignations. In fact, we struggle incessantly to shake off procrastination. We plan and schedule; we write down and underscore; we promise and make resolutions; we organize and reorganize. Generally, we accomplish a short lived refreshment from procrastination, and then crash soundly back into it. The reason? The problem of procrastination is one that often goes beyond self-discipline and whipping oneself from stasis to stress. It is usually the symptom of a multifaceted set of problems that defy a single solution.

Procrastination: Why does it seem so strong?

An ancient proverb states: "It is not the size of the tree but the depth of its roots that make it strong." Procrastination usually has very deep roots.

(1) Disorganization

Procrastination and disorganization are integrally linked. Yet it is errant to assume that all disorganization is the same. In fact, procrastination-oriented disorganization occurs in four primary areas.

(a) A poor distinction between urgency and priority. In the beginning of the urgency-priority cycle, procrastinators tend to attend to "comfort" tasks which are most convenient, interesting, or within reach. Priority is sacrificed for convenience. As these tasks are being attend to, however, other tasks begin to pile up, and soon a backlog of tasks cry out for attention. A jumble of new and old tasks become marked as urgent, and the procrastinator is forced to drop current tasks to attend to the urgent ones. In a sense, what is urgent has become priority. This confusion continues as tasks split into three categories which cry out for attention and which are increasingly difficult to distinguish, namely, priority/urgent; priority/non- urgent; non-priority/urgent. Meanwhile, the attractiveness of the non-urgent, non-priority comfort tasks still lure the procrastinator to do them. The result is that the procrastinator becomes subject to the tyranny of the urgent, is unable to establish proper priorities, and constantly seeks reprieve from these stresses by attending to tasks that are neither urgent nor priority!

(b) Distractibility. Closely related to the tendency of procrastinators to attend to comfort tasks is the problem of distractibility. It is not surprising to find procrastinators explaining that a task is left unattended to because "something else came up". Setting better emotional boundaries (e.g., saying "No" to yourself) in order to stay on task usually helps to limit attention to the multitude of off-task behaviours (distractions).

(c) Forgetfulness. Unfortunately, no amount of prioritizing or boundary drawing can prevail over disorganized forgetfulness. Typically, procrastinators assume they have an excellent memory and they often insist that they remember even though they appear to have forgotten ("Of course, I remember. I was just about to do it"). Multiple slips of "reminder" paper adorn their pockets and purses, and they seem to use more than one appointment book or none at all (both practices have the same effect) . A step in the right direction is to acknowledge a problem with forgetfulness, although it must never be used as an excuse for inaction.

d) Lumping. Finally, a major part of procrastination- oriented disorganization comes in the form of "lumping" or "chunking", that is, the errant perception that most tasks come as an inseparable whole (a "lump") that cannot be subdivided and dealt with systematically. The harried teenager who thinks of "cleaning my room" as a massive single-lump task would likely procrastinate over cleaning his room.

(2) Fear

Fear motivated procrastination usually expresses itself as avoidance and the intense desire to either delay performing a task or wait for its expiration so that it no longer has to be dealt with. Often, one task is related to another, and the cluster of avoided tasks increases over time. As outstanding tasks mount, the procrastinator becomes resigned, depressed and inactive. The internal struggles of fear-motivated procrastination are usually of two types: the rational versus the irrational ("I know that I should, so why can't I just do it") and discipline vs discomfort ("I planned to do it, but when the time came, I just didn't feel like it."). Attempts at resolving these conflicts must start at the level of dealing with the fear rather than with logic or greater discipline.

(3) Perfectionism

Most procrastinators do not think of themselves as perfectionists. "If I'm a perfectionist, I would get things done," they say. Not necessarily. In fact, perfectionism can lead to "starts and spurts" performance, meaning that an individual goes on a cleaning spree, or attacks a task with great energy and then slumps back in exhaustion after having exasperated, irritated, or alienated everyone around. Perfectionism has also been found to be strongly related to depression and an extremely critical spirit (either self or other critical).

What is perfectionism, then? Perfectionism is a form of rigidity or inflexibility that is marked by three major characteristics: (1) The intense desire to jump in and do things yourself because others just can't do it right; (2) the insistent attitude that you wouldn't even start on something if you can't do it well; and (3) the profound need for closure, indicated by agitation or discomfort should something be left "hanging". Each of these characteristics "drives" the perfectionist to procrastinate. For perfectionistic procrastinators, the first step in dealing with procrastination is acknowledging and disliking these three basic tendencies. Then practical solutions can be applied systematically.

(4) Procrastination As An Indicator

Procrastination may also be an indicator of a more serious physical or psychological problem that would respond positively to treatment. Often, such procrastination is not observed by the one procrastinating, but by others close to that person. Extreme anxiety, severe clinical depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity, and illnesses that are related to memory loss are examples of such dysfunctions that may lead to procrastination.

Taking Charge of Procrastination

(1) What am I afraid of? In fear-motivated procrastination, it is necessary to identify the fear to begin with. For example, a person trying to find a job over an extended period of time may have developed a fear of being rejected...yet again. A high school student drags her feet in completing her class project because of a fear of obtaining another failing grade. The accounts analyst finds it a chore to complete even one assignment towards his CGA certification because of his fear of the material itself. This last example may in fact have to do with his lack of aptitude in his chosen field! In a nutshell, both the fear and the sources of that fear must be confronted before the behaviours expressed by procrastination can be addressed. Often, a trained counsellor would be able to help in identifying the sources of fear and their effects on self-esteem, then provide some direction in dealing with these problems.

2) Get yourself an appointment book. And please...don't go overboard with this idea. Procrastinators often start ambitiously. (Remember the problem of "lumping"?) They run out and buy the most expensive bells-and-whistles appointment book, invest in an elaborate electronic daytimer, or photocopy reams of get-your-life-together organizers readily available on the market. You hear the reasoning, "Hey, if it's gotta be done, it's gotta be done right!" (Do you hear the perfectionist?) Eventually, the massive effort comes to an anticlimactic halt when they "run out of steam", and discouragement sets them three steps back after having dashed two steps forward. It is far wiser to purchase a simple appointment book, preferably one that is about the size of a small paperback that has a one week spread when the book is opened. Appointment books help to address the problems of disorganization and even poor memory.

First, learn to use it every day. Write down things you are going to do or that you have already done. Look ahead into the next week, if you like, but don't plan your life for the next year. To help you use the book more, write in important telephone numbers and addresses as you acquire them. Carry it around with you all day. Make its presence with you a habit.

Second, learn how to plan ahead realistically. Break down tasks into tangible stage goals, and provide these goals with appropriate deadlines. Then write these deadlines into your appointment book.

Third, provide yourself with daily "to do" lists that you write into your book. Even small, easy-to-do or habitual items could be added to the list. Check the items off as you go along. The point is to register accomplishment tangibly as you move through the day.

3) "Dechunking". Breaking a task down into manageable chunks ("dechunking") usually removes the threat of having to do a large task all at once. Sometimes, a task may be underestimated as costing very little energy and time when it really takes up a good chunk of your energies. Learn to break tasks down to 15 minute chunks to begin with. As you get more practised at it, increase the size of your chunks. It would be very helpful to use your appointment book to plan your dechunking.

Breaking Free

Procrastination has a way of ruling our lives if we do not bring it under control. Many resigned procrastinators simply confess, "I'm just lazy" and hope that the explanation suffices. Not by a long shot. Laziness is procrastination out of control. It takes a great deal of wisdom and effort to break the clutches of procrastination, but the results are often worth the while.

"Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men; knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve."

Epistle to the Colossians 3:23-24

Procrastination and Perfectionism

Many procrastinators do not realize that they are perfectionists, for the simple reason that they have never done anything perfectly, or even nearly so. They have never been told that something they did was perfect. They have never themselves felt that anything they did was perfect. They think, quite mistakenly, that being a perfectionist implies often, or sometimes, or at least once, having completed some task to perfection. But this is a misunderstanding of the basic dynamic of perfectionism.

Perfectionism is a matter of fantasy, not reality. Here's how it works in my case.  I am assigned some task, say, refereeing a manuscript for a publisher. I accept the task, probably because the publisher offers to pay me with a number of free books, which I wrongly suppose that if I owned I would get around to reading. But for whatever reason, I accept the task.

Immediately my fantasy life kicks in. I imagine myself writing the most wonderful referees report. I imagine giving the manuscript an incredibly thorough read, and writing a report that helps the author to greatly improve their efforts.  I imagine the publisher getting my report and saying, “Wow, that is the best referee report I have ever read.” I imagine my report being completely accurate, completely fair, incredibly helpful to author and publisher.

Why do I have such fantasies? God knows. Or maybe my shrink. Perhaps my father did not praise me enough as a child. Or perhaps he heaped praise on me when once, accidentally no doubt, I accomplished some task extremely well. Perhaps it is genetic. But this is just a practical three-step program, not an attempt at psychotherapy. (The first step is to read the essay “Structured Procrastination”. This is the second step. I haven’t figured out the third step.)  So we won't worry about why I, or you, have such fantasies. The point is that if you are a procrastinator, of the garden variety sort, something like this probably goes through your mind.

This is perfectionism in the relevant sense. It's not a matter of really ever doing anything that is perfect or even comes close. It is a matter of using tasks you accept to feed your fantasy of doing things perfectly, or at any rate extremely well.

How does the fantasy of perfection feed procrastination? Well, it's not so easy to do things perfectly. At least I assume that it is not. Perhaps some day I'll do something perfectly, and then I'll know for sure. But I assume that it is not. One needs time. And the proper setting. Clearly to referee this manuscript, I'll need to read it carefully. That will take time. I will no doubt want to go beyond the manuscript itself, and read some of the material that the author cites, to make sure the author is accurate and fair in what she says about it. I've read book reviews by philosophers I admire, and they obviously have done this. It's very impressive. But I'll need to be over in the library to do that properly. Well, in today's world, one doesn't need to be in the library. One can find a lot of this stuff on the web, if one knows how. Well, I don't know how. I know that there is this thing called “J-store” that allows one to access lots of philosophy journals online. If you are working at Stanford you can access it through the library. But it would be nice to be able to access it at home. I may want to work late into the night on this referee job. To access J-store at home you need to set up something called a proxy-server. I'd better figure out how to do that.

Well, seven or eight hours later I am done setting up the proxy server. Maybe I am done because I have managed to do it. More likely I have given up because every time I think I have done it, it doesn't work, or my screen goes blank.  But one thing I won't have done is start on the referee job. I will have invested enough time to give the book a quick read and form an opinion of it, but I won't have actually done this, or even gotten started. I feel like a schmuck, and of course I am.

Then what happens? I go on to other things. Most likely, the manuscript slowly disappears under subsequent memos, mail, half-eaten sandwiches, piles of files, and other things.  (See the essay on “Horizontal Organization”.)  I put it on my to do list, but I never look at my to do list. Then, in about six weeks, I get an email from the publisher, asking when she can expect the referee  report. Maybe, if she has dealt with me before, this email arrives a bit before I promised the report.  Maybe if she hasn't, it arrives a few days after the deadline.

At this point, finally, I snap into action. My fantasy structure changes. I no longer fantasize writing the world's best referee job ever. I fantasize letting down some woman back in the New York office of Oxford University Press. I imagine her going to the editorial meeting, where she promised to have a report on the manuscript, empty-handed.  “I'm sorry,” she says to her boss, “I counted on this fellow from Stanford, but he let me down.”  “That's it,” her boss says, “You're fired .”  “But I've got three small children, my husband is in the hospital, and the mortgage is overdue,” she says.  “I'm sorry,” he replies, “I've got a business to run.”  I imagine meeting this woman; she gives me a withering stare.  “You cost me my job,” she says.

And then there is the author.  Maybe her tenure depends on getting this book accepted.  It's probably a great book, a masterpiece that has been sitting on my desk unread while the tenure decision lies in the balance. Perhaps some day the whole world of philosophy will know that this deserving person lost tenure because John Perry sat on her manuscript -- like the editors at the physics journals who turned down Einstein's early manuscripts.  (I'm not sure that ever happened -- I meant to look it up, but haven't gotten around to it.)

At this point, I dig through the files, sandwiches, unopened correspondence, and, after a bit of panic (Have I lost the manuscript?  Will I have to ask the publisher for another copy?  Should I lie, and say that I thought I mailed the manuscript back with the review, but in must have been in that briefcase that the mugger took from me?) I find it. I take a couple of hours, read it, write a perfectly adequate report, and send it off.

Now let's analyze what happened. First of all, let's note that because I am a structured procrastinator, I have used the referee report as a way of doing a lot of other things. For example, I set up that proxy-server. My colleague says plaintively at some point, “I'd like to access J-store from home, but I don't have the proxy-server set up,”  “Oh,” I say jauntily, “I set mine up a couple of weeks ago.  Works great.”  “How do you ever find the time,” he says admiringly.  I don't reply, but look smug.

And, second, things turned out OK. I did finish the report, it wasn't too late, the publisher kept her job, the book was accepted or not, the author received tenure or not. True, the report wasn't perfect, but it was perfectly good enough. So structured procrastination seems to be working. But can't we do better? Can't we avoid the emotional turmoil, the waste of everyone's time, that these perfectionist fantasies lead to?

Well, I think we can, but it does require a little self-discipline. Not a lot. What one needs to do, in order to bring one's perfectionist fantasies under control, is what I call Task Quality Triage.

Procrastinating was a way of giving myself permission to do a less than perfect job on a task that didn't require a perfect job. As long as the deadline was a ways away, then, in theory, I had time to go the library, or set myself up for a long evening at home, and do a thorough, scholarly, perfect job refereeing this book. But when the deadline is near, or even a bit in the past, there is no longer time to do a perfect job. I have to just sit down and do an imperfect, but adequate job. The fantasies of perfection of replaced by the fantasies of utter failure. So I finally get to work on it. Now it would have been simpler for me, and for the publisher, and for the author, if I had sat down and spent four or five hours on the manuscript right off the bat. If only I had been able to give myself permission to do an imperfect job right at the outset. Is there anyway we can bring that about?

You have to get in the habit of forcing yourself to analyze, at the time you accept a task, to consider the costs and befits of doing a less than perfect job.  You need to ask the questions: how useful would a perfect job be here?  How much more useful than a merely adequate job? Or even a half-assed job? And you need to ask the questions: what is the probability that I will really do anything like a remotely perfect job on this? And you need to ask: what difference will it make to me, whether I do or not?

And the answer, in an enormous number of cases, will be that a less than perfect job will do just fine, and moreover it's all I am ever going to do anyway. So I give myself permission to do a less than perfect job, rather than waiting until it is overdue. I may as well do it now.

Editor's note : You will be happy to know the author has succeeded in his pursuit of acceptance of imperfection prior to spell-checking this article.

Outsmarting Keyloggers

Keyloggers: How they work and how to detect them (Part 1)

Mar 29 2007   |   comments (8)

Nikolay Grebennikov

In February 2005, Joe Lopez, a businessman from Florida, filed a suit against Bank of America after unknown hackers stole $90,000 from his Bank of America account. The money had been transferred to Latvia.

An investigation showed that Mr. Lopez’s computer was infected with a malicious program, Backdoor.Coreflood, which records every keystroke and sends this information to malicious users via the Internet. This is how the hackers got hold of Joe Lopez’s user name and password, since Mr. Lopez often used the Internet to manage his Bank of America account.

However the court did not rule in favor of the plaintiff, saying that Mr. Lopez had neglected to take basic precautions when managing his bank account on the Internet: a signature for the malicious code that was found on his system had been added to nearly all antivirus product databases back in 2003.

Joe Lopez’s losses were caused by a combination of overall carelessness and an ordinary keylogging program.

• About keyloggers
• Why keyloggers are a threat
• How cyber criminals use keyloggers
• Increased use of keyloggers by cyber criminals
• Keylogger construction
• How keyloggers spread
• Protection from keyloggers
• Conclusions

About Keyloggers

The term ‘keylogger’ itself is neutral, and the word describes the program’s function. Most sources define a keylogger as a software program designed to secretly monitor and log all keystrokes. This definition is not altogether correct, since a keylogger doesn’t have to be software – it can also be a device. Keylogging devices are much rarer than keylogging software, but it is important to keep their existence in mind when thinking about information security.

Legitimate programs may have a keylogging function which can be used to call certain program functions using “hotkeys,” or to toggle between keyboard layouts (e.g. Keyboard Ninja). There is a lot of legitimate software which is designed to allow administrators to track what employees do throughout the day, or to allow users to track the activity of third parties on their computers. However, the ethical boundary between justified monitoring and espionage is a fine line. Legitimate software is often used deliberately to steal confidential user information such as passwords.

Most modern keyloggers are considered to be legitimate software or hardware and are sold on the open market. Developers and vendors offer a long list of cases in which it would be legal and appropriate to use keyloggers, including:

• Parental control: parents can track what their children do on the Internet, and can opt to be notified if there are any attempts to access websites containing adult or otherwise inappropriate content;
• Jealous spouses or partners can use a keylogger to track the actions of their better half on the Internet if they suspect them of “virtual cheating”;
• Company security: tracking the use of computers for non-work-related purposes, or the use of workstations after hours;
• Company security: using keyloggers to track the input of key words and phrases associated with commercial information which could damage the company (materially or otherwise) if disclosed;
• Other security (e.g. law enforcement): using keylogger records to analyze and track incidents linked to the use of personal computers;
• Other reasons.

However, the justifications listed above are more subjective than objective; the situations can all be resolved using other methods. Additionally, any legitimate keylogging program can still be used with malicious or criminal intent. Today, keyloggers are mainly used to steal user data relating to various online payment systems, and virus writers are constantly writing new keylogger Trojans for this very purpose.

Furthermore, many keyloggers hide themselves in the system (i.e. they have rootkit functionality), which makes them fully-fledged Trojan programs.

As such programs are extensively used by cyber criminals, detecting them is a priority for antivirus companies. Kaspersky Lab’s malware classification system has a dedicated category for malicious programs with keylogging functionality: Trojan-Spy. Trojan-Spy programs, as the name suggests, track user activity, save the information to the user’s hard disk and then forward it to the author or ‘master’ of the Trojan. The information collected includes keystrokes and screen-shots, used in the theft of banking data to support online fraud.

Why keyloggers are a threat

Unlike other types of malicious program, keyloggers present no threat to the system itself. Nevertheless, they can pose a serious threat to users, as they can be used to intercept passwords and other confidential information entered via the keyboard. As a result, cyber criminals can get PIN codes and account numbers for e-payment systems, passwords to online gaming accounts, email addresses, user names, email passwords etc.

Once a cyber criminal has got hold of confidential user data, s/he can easily transfer money from the user’s account or access the user’s online gaming account. Unfortunately access to confidential data can sometimes have consequences which are far more serious than an individual’s loss of a few dollars. Keyloggers can be used as tools in both industrial and political espionage, accessing data which may include proprietary commercial information and classified government material which could compromise the security of commercial and state-owned organizations (for example, by stealing private encryption keys).

Keyloggers, phishing and social engineering (see 'Computers, Networks and Theft') are currently the main methods being used in cyber fraud. Users who are aware of security issues can easily protect themselves against phishing by ignoring phishing emails and by not entering any personal information on suspicious websites. It is more difficult, however, for users to combat keyloggers; the only possible method is to use an appropriate security solution, as it's usually impossible for a user to tell that a keylogger has been installed on his/ her machine.

According to Cristine Hoepers, the manager of Brazil’s Computer Emergency Response Team, which works under the aegis of the country’s Internet Steering Committee, keyloggers have pushed phishing out of first place as the most-used method in the theft of confidential information. What’s more, keyloggers are becoming more sophisticated – they track websites visited by the user and only log keystrokes entered on websites of particular interest to the cyber criminal.

In recent years, we have seen a considerable increase in the number of different kinds of malicious programs which have keylogging functionality. No Internet user is immune to cyber criminals, no matter where in the world s/he is located and no matter what organization s/he works for.

How cyber criminals use keyloggers

One of the most publicized keylogging incidents recently was the theft of over $1million from client accounts at the major Scandinavian bank Nordea. In August 2006 Nordea clients started to receive emails, allegedly from the bank, suggesting that they install an antispam product, which was supposedly attached to the message. When a user opened the file and downloaded it to his/ her computer, the machine would be infected with a well known Trojan called Haxdoor. This would be activated when the victim registered at Nordea’s online service, and the Trojan would display an error notification with a request to re-enter the registration information. The keylogger incorporated in the Trojan would record data entered by the bank’s clients, and later send this data to the cyber criminals’ server. This was how cyber criminals were able to access client accounts, and transfer money from them. According to Haxdoor's author, the Trojan has also been used in attacks against Australian banks and many others.

On January 24, 2004 the notorious Mydoom worm caused a major epidemic. MyDoom broke the record previously set by Sobig, provoking the largest epidemic in Internet history to date. The worm used social engineering methods and organized a DoS attack on www.sco.com; the site was either unreachable or unstable for several months as a consequence. The worm left a Trojan on infected computers which was subsequently used to infect the victim machines with new modifications of the worm. The fact that MyDoom had a keylogging function to harvest credit card numbers was not widely publicized in the media.

In early 2005 the London police prevented a serious attempt to steal banking data. After attacking a banking system, the cyber criminals had planned to steal $423 million from Sumitomo Mitsui’s London-based offices. The main component of the Trojan used, which was created by the 32-year-old Yeron Bolondi, was a keylogger that allowed the criminals to track all the keystrokes entered when victims used the bank’s client interface.

In May 2005 in London the Israeli police arrested a married couple who were charged with developing malicious programs that were used by some Israeli companies in industrial espionage. The scale of the espionage was shocking: the companies named by the Israeli authorities in investigative reports included cellular providers like Cellcom and Pelephone, and satellite television provider YES. According to reports, the Trojan was used to access information relating to the PR agency Rani Rahav, whose clients included Partner Communications (Israel’s second leading cellular services provider) and the HOT cable television group. The Mayer company, which imports Volvo and Honda cars to Israel, was suspected of committing industrial espionage against Champion Motors, which imports Audi and Volkswagen cars to the country. Ruth Brier-Haephrati, who sold the keylogging Trojan that her husband Michael Haephrati created, was sentenced to four years in jail, and Michael received a two-year sentence.

In February 2006, the Brazilian police arrested 55 people involved in spreading malicious programs which were used to steal user information and passwords to banking systems. The keyloggers were activated when the users visited their banks’ websites, and secretly tracked and subsequently sent all data entered on these pages to cyber criminals. The total amount of money stolen from 200 client accounts at six of the country’s banks totaled $4.7million.

At approximately the same time, a similar criminal grouping made up of young (20 – 30 year old) Russians and Ukrainians was arrested. In late 2004, the group began sending banking clients in France and a number of other countries email messages that contained a malicious program – namely, a keylogger. Furthermore, these spy programs were placed on specially created websites; users were lured to these sites using classic social engineering methods. In the same way as in the cases described above, the program was activated when users visited their banks’ websites, and the keylogger harvested all the information entered by the user and sent it to the cyber criminals. In the course of eleven months over one million dollars was stolen.

There are many more examples of cyber criminals using keyloggers – most financial cybercrime is committed using keyloggers, since these programs are the most comprehensive and reliable tool for tracking electronic information.

Increased use of keyloggers by cyber criminals

The fact that cyber criminals choose to use keyloggers time and again is confirmed by IT security companies.

One of VeriSign's recent reports notes that in recent years, the company has seen a rapid growth in the number of malicious programs that have keylogging functionality.

Source: iDefense, a VeriSign Company

One report issued by Symantec shows that almost 50% of malicious programs detected by the company’s analysts during the past year do not pose a direct threat to computers, but instead are used by cyber criminals to harvest personal user data.

According to research conducted by John Bambenek, an analyst at the SANS Institute, approximately 10 million computers in the US alone are currently infected with a malicious program which has a keylogging function. Using these figures, together with the total number of American users of e-payment systems, possible losses are estimated to be $24.3 million.

Kaspersky Lab is constantly detecting new malicious programs which have a keylogging function. One of the first virus alerts on www.viruslist.com, Kaspersky Lab’s dedicated malware information site, was published on 15th June 2001. The warning related to TROJ_LATINUS.SVR, a Trojan with a keylogging function. Since then, there has been a steady stream of new keyloggers and new modifications. Kaspersky antivirus database currently contain records for more than 300 families of keyloggers. This number does not include keyloggers that are part of complex threats (i.e. in which the spy component provides additional functionality).

Most modern malicious programs are hybrids which implement many different technologies. Due to this, any category of malicious program may include programs with keylogger (sub)functionality. The number of spy programs detected by Kaspersky Lab each month is on the increase, and most of these programs use keylogging technology.

Keylogger construction

The main idea behind keyloggers is to get in between any two links in the chain of events between when a key is pressed and when information about that keystroke is displayed on the monitor. This can be achieved using video surveillance, a hardware bug in the keyboard, wiring or the computer itself, intercepting input/ output, substituting the keyboard driver, the filter driver in the keyboard stack, intercepting kernel functions by any means possible (substituting addresses in system tables, splicing function code, etc.), intercepting DLL functions in user mode, and, finally, requesting information from the keyboard using standard documented methods.

Experience shows that the more complex the approach, the less likely it is to be used in common Trojan programs and the more likely it is to be used in specially designed Trojan programs which are designed to steal financial data from a specific company.

Keyloggers can be divided into two categories: keylogging devices and keylogging software. Keyloggers which fall into the first category are usually small devices that can be fixed to the keyboard, or placed within a cable or the computer itself. The keylogging software category is made up of dedicated programs designed to track and log keystrokes.

The most common methods used to construct keylogging software are as follows:

• a system hook which intercepts notification that a key has been pressed (installed using WinAPI SetWindowsHook for messages sent by the window procedure. It is most often written in C);
• a cyclical information keyboard request from the keyboard (using WinAPI Get(Async)KeyState or GetKeyboardState – most often written in Visual Basic, sometimes in Borland Delphi);
• using a filter driver (requires specialized knowledge and is written in C).

We will provide a detailed explanation of the different ways keyloggers are constructed in the second half of this article (to be published in the near future). But first, here are some statistics.

A rough breakdown of the different types of keyloggers is shown in the pie chart below:

Recently, keyloggers that disguise their files to keep them from being found manually or by an antivirus program have become more numerous. These stealth techniques are called rootkit technologies. There are two main rootkit technologies used by keyloggers:

• masking in user mode;
• masking in kernel mode.

A rough breakdown of the techniques used by keyloggers to mask their activity is shown in the pie chart below:

How keyloggers spread

Keyloggers spread in much the same way that other malicious programs spread. Excluding cases where keyloggers are purchased and installed by a jealous spouse or partner, and the use of keyloggers by security services, keyloggers are mostly spread using the following methods):

• a keylogger can be installed when a user opens a file attached to an email;
• a keylogger can be installed when a file is launched from an open-access directory on a P2P network;
• a keylogger can be installed via a web page script which exploits a browser vulnerability. The program will automatically be launched when a user visits a infected site;
• a keylogger can be installed by another malicious program already present on the victim machine, if the program is capable of downloading and installing other malware to the system.

How to protect yourself from keyloggers

Most antivirus companies have already added known keyloggers to their databases, making protecting against keyloggers no different from protecting against other types of malicious program: install an antivirus product and keep its database up to date. However, since most antivirus products classify keyloggers as potentially malicious, or potentially undesirable programs, users should ensure that their antivirus product will, with default settings, detect this type of malware. If not, then the product should be configured accordingly, to ensure protection against most common keyloggers.

Let’s take a closer look at the methods that can be used to protect against unknown keyloggers or a keylogger designed to target a specific system.

Since the chief purpose of keyloggers is to get confidential data (bank card numbers, passwords, etc.), the most logical ways to protect against unknown keyloggers are as follows:

1. using one-time passwords or two-step authentication,
2. using a system with proactive protection designed to detect keylogging software,
3. using a virtual keyboard.

Using a one-time password can help minimize losses if the password you enter is intercepted, as the password generated can be used one time only, and the period of time during which the password can be used is limited. Even if a one-time password is intercepted, a cyber criminal will not be able to use it in order to obtain access to confidential information.

In order to get one-time passwords, you can use a special device such as:

1. a USB key (such as Aladdin eToken NG OTP):
   
2. a ‘calculator’ (such as RSA SecurID 900 Signing Token):
   

In order to generate one-time passwords, you can also use mobile phone text messaging systems that are registered with the banking system and receive a PIN-code as a reply. The PIN is then used together with the personal code for authentication.

If either of the above devices is used to generate passwords, the procedure is as described below:

1. the user connects to the Internet and opens a dialogue box where personal data should be entered;
2. the user then presses a button on the device to generate a one-time password, and a password will appear on the device’s LCD display for 15 seconds;
3. the user enters his user name, personal PIN code and the generated one-time password in the dialogue box (usually the PIN code and the key are entered one after the other in a single pass code field);
4. the codes that are entered are verified by the server, and a decision is made whether or not the user may access confidential data.

When using a calculator device to generate a password, the user will enter his PIN code on the device 'keyboard' and press the ">" button.

One-time password generators are widely used by banking systems in Europe, Asia, the US and Australia. For example, Lloyds TSB, a leading bank, decided to use password generators back in November 2005.

In this case, however, the company has to spend a considerable amount of money as it had to acquire and distribute password generators to its clients, and develop/ purchase the accompanying software.

A more cost efficient solution is proactive protection on the client side, which can warn a user if an attempt is made to install or activate keylogging software.

Proactive protection against keyloggers in Kaspersky Internet Security

The main drawback of this method is that the user is actively involved and has to decide what action should be taken. If a user is not very technically experienced, s/he might make the wrong decision, resulting in a keylogger being allowed to bypass the antivirus solution. However, if developers minimize user involvement, then keyloggers will be able to evade detection due to an insufficiently rigorous security policy. However, if settings are too stringent, then other, useful programs which contain legitimate keylogging functions might also be blocked.

The final method which can be used to protect against both keylogging software and hardware is using a virtual keyboard. A virtual keyboard is a program that shows a keyboard on the screen, and the keys can be 'pressed' by using a mouse.

The idea of an on-screen keyboard is nothing new - the Windows operating system has a built-in on-screen keyboard that can be launched as follows: Start > Programs > Accessories > Accessibility > On-Screen Keyboard.

An example of the Windows on-screen keyboard

However, on-screen keyboards aren’t a very popular method of outsmarting keyloggers. They were not designed to protect against cyber threats, but as an accessibility tool for disabled users. Information entered using an on-screen keyboard can easily be intercepted by a malicious program. In order to be used to protect against keyloggers, on-screen keyboards have to be specially designed in order to ensure that information entered or transmitted via the on-screen keyboard cannot be intercepted.

Conclusions

This article has provided an overview of how keyloggers – both keylogging software and hardware - function and are used.

• Even though keylogger developers market their products as legitimate software, most keyloggers can be used to steal personal user data and in political and industrial espionage.
• At present, keyloggers – together with phishing and social engineering methods – are one of the most commonly used methods of cyber fraud.
• IT security companies have recorded a steady increase in the number of malicious programs that have keylogging functionality.
• Reports show that there is an increased tendency to use rootkit technologies in keylogging software, to help the keylogger evade manual detection and detection by antivirus solutions.
• Only dedicated protection can detect that a keylogger is being used for spy purposes.
• The following measures can be taken to protect against keyloggers:
  • use a standard antivirus that can be adjusted to detect potentially malicious software (default settings for many products);
  • proactive protection will protect the system against new ,modifications of existing keyloggers;
  • use a virtual keyboard or a system to generate one-time passwords to protect against keylogging software and hardware.

Source:

Kaspersky Lab

تنبلي يا مسامحه کاري .!!

ممکن است ندانيدکه مسامحه کاري وتنبلي کردن شماديگران راناراحت مي کند.ممکن است افکارمنفي راازذهنتان دورنگهداريدوبگوييد:«فراموش مي کنم .»اينگونه مي توانيداحساس واقعي خودراکتمان کنيد.

و اما دلايل تنبلي يا مسامحه کاري.

فقدان قاطعيت :

 خيلي هابه خاطرنداشتن قاطعيت وموافقت کردن باانجام کارهايي که علاقه اي به انجام آن ندارندمسامحه مي کنند.ممکن است به صرف اينکه خيال مي کنيدبايدآدم خوبي باشيد،تسليم خواسته هاي غيرمنطقي

 ديگران گرديد.ممکن است براين گمان باشيدکه بايدتوقعات ديگران رابرآورده سازيدوعزت نفس خودرابه برداشت ديگران ازخودمنوط کنيد.ممکن است ازانتقادديگران بترسيد،ممکن است ازنه گفتن وحشت

داشته باشيد،مکن است بترسيدکه ديگران راناراحت کنيدودرنتيجه هروقت به يادآن کارمي افتيدازانجامش طفره مي رويدوناراحت مي شويد.

احساس جبر:

 ممکن است چون فکرمي کنيدکه ديگران باسلطه جويي ازشماتوقعات بي جادارند تن به مسامحه بدهيد.ممکن است دربرابرخواسته هاي آنها سماجت کنيد و از انجام کارهايي که از شما مي خواهند خودداري

 کنيد.ازسوي ديگر،اشخاص مقابل شماممکن است ازاين رفتارتان ناراحت شوندوبيش ازپيش شمارازيرفشاربگذارند.اين امرمنجربه برخوردقدرت مي شودزيراهيچ کدام ازخواسته خودعدول نمي  کنند.

اعتراض غير مستقيم :

ممکن است مسامحه کاري دراين شرايط ،اعتراض غيرمستقيم به کسي باشدکه شمارازيرفشارقرارداده است .باآنکه ممکن است به سودشماباشدکه باآنهاکناربياييداحساس مي کنيدکه بايدمبارزه کنيدواجازه

ندهيدکه برشمامسلط شوند.

بي ميلي:

 موضوع به ظاهرمسلم است وبااين حال ازجمله دلايل مهم تنبلي است .وقتي ازانجام کاري طفره مي رويددليلش اين است که به انجام آن بي علاقه هستيد.اغلب تنبلهامتوجه اين مطلب نيستند.تنهااين رامي دانندکه

کاري هست که بايدانجام دهند؛اماوقتي نوبت انجام آن مي رسد،علاقه اي به اين کارندارند،بنابراين سراغ کارديگري مي روند.به جاي آنکه به خودبگويندکه مايل نيستيداين کارراانجام دهيد،پيش خودي گوييد:«من

تنبل هستم ازکارفرارمي کنم .به همين دليل است که به حساب دخل وخرج نمي رسم .(يابه همين دليل است که روي ميزم رامرتب نمي کنم ،ياچمنهاراکوتاه نمي کنم .)»امااينهاهمه سخنان بي مورداست ،دليل

 اصلي انجام ندادن کارهااين است که علاقه اي به انجام آن نداريد.

گاه کاري رابه اين دليل که ازاولويت زيادي برخوردارنيست ،انجام نمي دهيد.ممکن است احساس کنيدکه کارعاقلانه اي نيست .ممکن است درقلب خوداصلاعلاقه اي به انجام آن نداشته باشيد.شايد خانواده

،دوستان يارئيس شما،شمارابه انجام کاري تشويق کرده اندکه اصولاعلاقه اي به انجام آن نداريد.

كمال گرايي

آيا شما هم هموار فکر مي کنيد آن کسي که مي خواهيم باشيد نيستيد؟

آيا احساس مي كنيم كارهايي كه به اتمام رسانده ايم به اندازه كافي خوب نيستند؟

آيا نوشتن مقالات و طرحها را با اهداف انجام دقيق آنها به تعويق مي اندازيم ؟

آيا احساس مي كنيم كارها را بايد صد در صد درست انجام دهيم و در غير اين صورت فردي متوسط و يا حتي بازنده هستيم؟

اگر چنين باشد در آن صورت ما به جاي حركت در مسير موفقيت سعي در كامل بودن داريم.

كمال گرايي:

به افكار و رفتار هاي خود تخريب گرانه اي اشاره مي كند كه هدف آنها نيل به اهداف به شدت افراطي و غير واقع گرايانه است. در جامعه امروزي ‍ به اشتباه كمال گرايي چيزي مطلوب و حتي لازم براي موفقيت در نظر گرفته مي شود.

به هرحال مطالعات اخير نشان مي دهند نگرش كمال گرايانه موجب اخلال در موفقيت مي شود. آرزوي كامل بودن ‍ ، هم احساس رضايت از خودمان را از ما مي گيرد و هم ما را به اندازه ساير مردم ( كساني كه اهداف واقع گرايانه دارند ) ، در معرض ناكامي قرار مي دهد.

علل كمال گرايي

اگر ما فردي كمال گرا باشيم ،‌احتمالا در كودكي ياد گرفته ايم ديگران با توجه به ميزان كارآييمان در انجام كارها به ما بها مي دهند در نتيجه آموخته ايم در صورتي ارزشمنديم كه مورد قبول ديگران واقع شويم ( فقط بر پايه ميزان پذيرش ديگران به خود بها مي دهيم ) ،‌ بنا بر اين عزت نفس ما ، بر اساس معيارهاي خارجي  پايه ريزي شده است . اين امر مي تواند ما را نسبت به نقطه نظرها و انتقادات ديگران ، آسيب پذير و به شدت حساس سازد. در نتيجه تلاش براي حمايت از خودمان و رهايي از اينگونه انتقادات ، سبب مي گردد كامل بودن را تنها راه دفاع از خود بدانيم . بعضي از احساسات ‍، افكار و باورهاي منفي ذيل ،‌احتمالا با كمال گرايي مرتبط هستند:

ترس از بازنده بودن:

افراد كمال گرا ،‌غالبا شكست در رسيدن به هدف هايشان را با از دست دادن ارزش و بهاي شخصي مساوي مي دانند.

ترس از اشتباه كردن :

افراد كمال گرا ،‌غالبا اشتباه را مساوي با شكست مي دانند . موضع آنها در زندگي ،‌حول و حوش اجتناب از اشتباه است . كمال گراها فرصت هاي يادگيري و ارتقاء را از دست مي دهند.

ترس از نارضايتي :

افراد كمال گرا ،‌ در صورتي كه ديگران شاهد نقايص يا معايب كارشان باشند ،  غالبا به دليل ترس از عدم پذيرش از سوي آنان ،  دچار وحشت مي گردند. تلاش براي كامل بودن در واقع روشي جهت حمايت گرفتن از ديگران به جاي انتقاد ، طرد شدن يا نارضايتي مي باشد.

 

همه يا هيچ پنداري :

افراد کمال گرا، بندرت بر اين باورند كه در صورت به پايان رسانيدن يك كار بطور متوسط ، هنوز با ارزش هستند. افراد كمال گرا در ديدن دورنماي موقعيت ها دچار مشكل هستند. براي  مثال ،‌ دانش آموزي كه هميشه نمره (A) داشته ، در صورت گرفتن نمره  (‌ B ) بر اين باور است كه - كه من يك بازنده كامل هستم-

تاكيد بسيار بر روي بايدها :

زندگي كمال گرا غالبا بر اساس ليست پايان ناپذيري از بايدها بنا شده است كه با قوانين خشكي براي هدايت زندگي آنها به خدمت گرفته مي شود . افراد كمال گرا با داشتن چنين تاكيدهايي بر روي بايد ها بندرت بر روي خواسته ها و آرزوهاي خود حساب مي كنند.

اعتقاد داشتن به اين امر كه ديگران به آساني به موفقيت مي رسند:

افراد كمال گرا مشاهدات خود را به گونه اي جمع آوري مي كنند كه بگويند افراد ديگر با كمترين تلاش ، خطاهاي كم ، استرس هاي عاطفي كمتر و بالاترين اعتماد به نفس به موفقيت دست مي يابند . در عين حال افراد كمال گرا كوششهاي خود را پايان نا پذير و ناكافي تلقي مي كنند.

 

كمال گرايي به چه معناست؟

^{آنهايي كه اهل خواندن زندگي خصوصي ورزشكاران هستند مي دانند كه ويژگي هاي شخصيتي ورزشكاران از زمين تا آسمان با هم فرق دارند. آنهايي كه دقيق ترند احتمالا در مورد رابطه ي اين ويژگي ها با موفقيت يا شكست مداوم اين ورزشكاران نيز انديشيده اند. به عنوان مثال اين كه چرا بعضي از ورزشكاران بعد از دوره ي ركود دوباره به فعاليت سازنده در حوزه هاي ديگر ادامه مي دهند و بعضي ديگر به افسردگي مبتلا مي شوند؟ اخيرا روان شناسان ورزشي يك مفهوم ديگر را نيز وارد اين حوزه كرده اند، يك ويژگي شخصيتي با عنوان كمال گرايي.}

 

^{كمال گرايي به چه معناست؟}

^{كمال گرايي از اوايل قرن بيستم مفهوم مورد علاقه ي روان شناسان بوده است. اولين كساني كه بر روي كمال گرايي كار كردند آن را اين گونه تعريف كردند:’’ گرايش افراطي فرد به بي عيب و نقص بودن، كوچكترين اشتباه خود را گناهي نا بخشودني پنداشتن و مضطربانه انتظار پيامدهاي شوم شكست را كشيدن’’. به زبان ساده تر افراد كمال گرا معيار هاي خيلي خيلي بالايي را براي موفقيت در نظر مي گيرند و اگر به آن اهداف بلند پروازانه نرسند خود را شكست خورده مي پندارند. آنها دنيا را به با قانون همه يا هيچ مي شناسند. هر نتيجه ي ممكن يا شكست كامل است يا موفقيت كامل. در ورزش اين پديده به وضوح در نظر ورزشكاران بعد از انجام مسابقه نمود پيدا مي كند. آنهايي كه مساوي گرفتن را يك شكست افتضاح مي دانند و اصلا به عوامل ديگر دخيل در نتيجه كاري ندارند احتمالا افرادي كمال گرا هستند. اگر قبل از مسابقه نيز به سراغ ورزشكاران كمال گرا برويم مي بينيم كه بيش از هر چيز ترس از شكست ذهنشان را مشغول كرده است.}

 

^{كمال گرايي خوب، كمال گرايي بد}

^{البته بعد ها كمال گرايي توسط روان شناسي به نام هاماچك به كمال گرايي بهنجار و نابهنجار تقسيم شد. كساني كه كمال گراي بهنجار يا سازگارانه هستند معيار هايي را براي خود در نظر مي گيرند اما به جاي اين كه رسيدن و يا نرسيدن به آن معيار ها برايشان مهم باشد نفس تلاش كردن براي رسيدن به هدف در نظرشان اهميت دارد. در واقع اين افراد از كار و تلاش زياد لذت مي برند و وقتي كه در انجام دادن يا ندادن كاري آزادند سعي مي كنند آن را به بهترين نحوي كه مي توانند انجام دهند. كمال گرايي بهنجار نه تنها موجب مشكلي نمي شود بلكه باعث مي شوند كه فرد استعداد هاي خود را شكوفا كند و به احساس رضايت شخصي بالايي دست يابد. بر خلاف اين نوع كمال گرايي، كمال گرايي نابهنجار به همان تعاريف اوليه نزديك است: كمال گرايان نابنجار يا روان رنجور بيشتر در فكر آنند كه مبادا اشتباهي از آن ها سر بزند. آن ها هيچ وقت كاملا احساس پيروزي نمي كنند. آن ها حتا اگر از ديگران بهتر كار كنند باز هم احساس رضايت نمي كنند.  اين افراد هر چند هم كه به موفقيت دست پيدا كنند راضي نيستند و خود را سرزنش مي كنند و هدف بالاتري را در نظر مي گررند. آنها در اين زنجيره ي بي انتها گير مي كنند و هميشه با خودشان در گيرند.}

^{به زبان ورزشكاري افراد داراي كمال گرايي بهنجار مي توانند محدوديت هاي بدني خود و محدوديت هاي امكانات جامعه را بپذيرند. بر اساس آن اهداف انعطاف پذيري مثل آوردن مقامي خوب در فلان مسابقات را براي خود در نظر مي گيرند. آن ها براي رسيدن به اين هدف تلاش مي كنند و همين تلاش آن ها را راضي نگه مي دارد و اعتماد به نفس آن ها را بالا مي برد. او حتا اگر شكست بخورد مي داند كه همه ي تلاش خود را كرده است و با احساس رضايت شخصي از ميدان بيرون مي آيد.}

^{ورزشكاران با شخصيت كمال گرايي نابهنجار بر عكس از همان اول يك هدف بلند پروازانه و غير واقع بينانه را براي خود در نظر مي گيرند مثلا مي گويند بايد حتما در مسابقات المپيك به مقام اول برسند و گرنه ديگر مقام ها ارزشي ندارند و يك شكست كامل محسوب مي شوند. اين افراد حتا اگر به مقام اول المپيك برسند باز هم احساس رضايت نمي رسند و حفظ اين مقام را براي مثلا ده سال يك موفقيت كامل مي دانند و الي آخر. در حالات شديد تر آنها حتا اگر در يك حوزه ي ورزشي به اوج برسند تمايل دارند در حوزه هاي رفتاري ديگر مثل علم و هنر نيز در اوج باشند. در واقع ورزشكاران كمال گرا هيچ وقت خود را پيروز ميدان نمي دانند: چه در ميدان بيرون و چه در ميدان درون! آنها حتا به خود اجازه نمي دهند كه از ديگران كمك بگيرند چون حتا كمك نزديك ترين دوستانشان باعث مي شود او خودش را يك كار را به طور كامل انجام نهداده باشد. ورزشكاران كمال گرا از آنجا كه خود را منصف، درستكار و وظيفه شناس مي دانند از همه افراد انتظار احترام دارند.}

 

^{چرا بعضي ها كمال گرا مي شوند؟}

^{براي اين كه يك ويژگي شخصيتي در فردي شكل بگيرد عوامل زيادي از لحظه ي تولد تا بزرگسالي دست به دست هم مي دهند. ما سعي مي كنيم به طور خلاصه اين ويژگي ها را با تاكيد بر ورزش بيان كنيم .}

 

^{والدين كمال گرا و قدرت طلب: معمولا ورزشكاراني كه بيش از حد كمال گرا هستند در كودكي والديني داشته اند كه معتقد بوده اند هميشه پدر و مادر درست مي گويند، هميشه پدر و مادر حق دارند و درست عمل مي كنند. از آن جا كه اين والدين تفاوت توانايي هاي خود و كودكانشان را درك نمي كنند سعي مي كنند با تنبيه كودكان را مجبور به رسيدن به معيار هاي خودشان كنند. معيارهايي كه آن قدر غير واقع بينانه اند كه در كمتر مواقعي به آن دست پيدا مي كنند. به اين سبك تربيت سبك والديني قدرت طلبانه مي گويند و زمينه هاي كمال گرايي را در كودك فراهم مي كنند. همچنين والديني كه خود كمال گرا هستند نه تنها موفقيت هاي كودكانشان را در كوچك مي پندارند حتا موفقيت هاي خودشان را قبول ندارند. كودكان والدين كمال گرا نيز هيچ گاه احساس خوبي نسبت به خود نداربند چون نتوانسته اند والدينشان را خشنود كنند.}

^{ورزشكاران اگر از كودكي شروع به ورزش قهرماني كرده باشند در صورتي كه والدين كمال گرا يا قدرت طلب داشته باشند دو جهنم را با هم تجربه مي كنند. آن ها به رغم موفقيت هايشان هميشه هم از درون خود مي سوزند و هم والدينشان آن ها را در جهنم كمال گرايي شان مي سوزانند. يك موفقيت در شهرستان كوچك تلقي مي شود، همين طور در استان، همين طور در كشور و حتا در المپيك. اين موفقيت ها هرگزي والدين و كودك را راضي نمي كنند. والدين اين ورزشكاران آشكارا دوست داشتن يا نداشتن كودكانشان را منوط به موفقيت كامل  مي دانند.}

^{معمولا والدين وسواسي، پر توقع و عيب جو ورزشكاراني كمال گرا را بار مي آورند.}

^{اين والدين بعدا در قالب مربيان نيز مي توانند خودشان را نشان دهند. در واقع مربيان پر توقع نيز مي توانند ورزشكاران كمال گرا پرورش دهند.}

^{عوامل فردي: بعضي از باورهاي فرد ي كه موجب كمال گرايي مي شوند عبارتند از:}

^{.1 نياز به تاييد: همه ي افراد مهم زندگي من از جمله والدين، همسر، مربي و تماشاگران بايد مرا تاييد كنند و دوستم بدارند.}

^{2.انتظارات بيش از حد از خود ؛ اگر من در همه زمينه هخا با كفايت نباشم فرد بي ارزشي همستم.}

^{3.مستعد سرزنش: اگر من نتوان به پيروزي دست يابم ديگران مي توانند مرا تنبيه كنند.}

^{4. نگراني بيش از اندازه: درست است كه مسابقه چندان بزرگ نيست اما من بايد به هر حال نگران باشم}

^{5. پرهيز از مشكلات: فرار از مشكلات بهتر از درگير شدن در آن است.}

 

^{كمال گرايي با ورزشكاران چه كار مي كند؟}

^{روان شناسان با توجه به عوامل  بالابه سه بعد كمال گرايي اشاره كرده اند.}

1. ^{كمال گرايي خود مدار: اين بعد همان بعدي ست كه در تعريف هاي اول هم به آن تاكيد داشتيم يعني خود ورزشكار در مورد خودش توقعات بالايي دارد و از شكست خودش مي ترسد.}
2. ^{كمال گرايي ديگر مدار: افراد كمال گرا معمولا نه تنها خودشان بلكه ديگران را نيز اذين مي كنند. يك مربي و يا يك كاپيتان كمال گرا و پر توقع مي تواند با ارزيابي سخت گيرانه اش عزت نفس همه ي بازيگران را خدشه دار كند.}
3. ^{كمال گرايي القا شده توسط اجتماع: اين بعد بيشتر به مطبوعات و تفكر عامه ي مردم در توقع از يك ورزشكار يا يك تيم بر مي گردد. در واقعورزشكاران كمال گرايي كه در يك جامعه ي كمال گرا زندگي مي كنند هميشه از تاييد نشدن توسط مطبوعات و افكار عمومي مي ترسند.}

 ^{در تحقيقي كه اخيرا با هدف اندازه گيري رابطه ي كمال گرايي با حالات خلقي منفي انجام شد روان شناسان ورزشي كاندا به نتايج زير رسيدند:}

^{-انتظارات بالاي جامعه، والدين و مربيان باعث مي شود كه ورزشكاران حالات غمگيني و افسردگي را تجربه كنند.}

^{- انتظارات بالاي مربيان به تنهايي مي تواند موجب احساس تنش و اضطراب در ورزشكاران شود.}

^{- توقعات بيش از حد جامعه، مربيان و والدين باعث مي شود كه ورزشكاران نسبت به ورزشكاران ديگر احساس خشم و خصومت كنند.}

 

^{چه بايد كرد؟}

 

^{با توجه به اين كه در جامعه ما متاسفانه به روان شناسي ورزش به اندازه ي ديگركشورها بها داده نمي شود قبل از هر چيز بايد اين حرفه در جامعه ي ورزشي ما به رسميت شناخته شود. همچنين دانشكده هاي روان شناسي و تربيت بدني مي توانند با همكاري هم به تاسيس گروه هاي آموزشي روان شناسي ورزش دست بزنند.}

^{به طور كلي هر چه كه ورزشكاران استرس كمتري تجربه كنند حالات خلقي منفي كمتري دارند. يعني كمتر مضطرب، افسرده و خصومت جو مي شوند. اين به نوبه ي خود باعث مي شود كه بهتر بازي كنند و بيشتر موفق شوند.}

^{مربيان بايد آگاه باشند كه ورزشكاراني را كه كمال گرا هستند بشناسند و در تعديل اين ويژگي شخصيتي با كمك روان شناس بكوشند. همچنين خود مربيان نبايد به خاطر ويژگي كمال گرايانه ي خود توقع بيش از اندازه اي از ورزشكاران داشته باشند و آنها را تحت فشار قرار ندهند.}

^{مطبوعات نييز علاوه بر اين كه نبايد به توقعات بالي جامعه از ورزشكاران حرفه اي دامن بزنند بلكه بايد اين سطح توقعات را متناسب با توانايي هاي ورزشكاران پايين بياورند.}