Perfectionism - Desired trait or curse?

Seeing as though I possess this quality, I can definitely say it is a little of both.  It certainly is my most often used attribute when asked about strengths at an interview.  But at times it can be a bit waring.  Is everything in a perfectionist's world perfect?  No!  I think you'd have to carry some degree of OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) for this to be the case.  In a perfectionist's world, your mind simply chooses particular things that it deems important to make perfect.  Do you have control over this?  Maybe, but your mind makes a pretty compelling argument which you can't reason against.

Okay, so why am I rambling on about perfectionism?  Well, because my stupid brain decided that instead of cleaning up the house to prepare for a visit from my sister tomorrow, I should instead mow the lawn.  Oh, but wait... it gets better.  Once the lawn was mowed and I was putting the yard bin back by the driveway, suddenly the perfectionist neuron activated.  For some reason my brain was able to convince me that I could not possibly have company arrive tomorrow and see that I had not properly hosed down the driveway and removed all weeds from any cracks/crevices.  What??  Why did my mind decide this was of vast importance?  That stuff is all covered the moment you park the car!  It took a solid hour just to get it... yup, perfect!!  Imagine all the cleaning inside the house I could have accomplished in that amount of time!  Cleaning that actually needed to be done as opposed to this frivolous crap I just did.  Grrrrrr.

Does it come in handy to have that much attention to detail?  Well... I'm rarely disappointed with projects I complete, my bosses have always given me rave reviews, and now my sister and I can eat our dinner right off the driveway if we wanted to.