(Perfectionist thinking: "Oh well, if I had tried, I could have done the best in the class.")
(Perfectionist thinking: "I didn't have enough time. If I had started earlier when everyone else did, it would have been perfect.")
Yeah. I had to be explicitly told that people think this way, btw. I am not a perfectionist, but my DH is and my DD is is developing some tendencies in certain areas. She sometimes does the bare minimum on writing assignments (she's a talented writer--if she tries) and has been avoiding or phoning in art (she's very artistic). I actually taught her the phrase "phone it in" this year to use as shorthand. She has tearfully admitted that sometimes she's afraid to try because if she tries her best and it's not great, that's devastating, but if you don't try hard and it's not good, your self esteem stays intact, because you know you didn't try.
My DH admits that he intentionally leaves things till the last minute so that time pressure can serve as an excuse for why it wasn't perfect, although he also says he does this so he doesn't have time to obsessively rework things again and again.
