Making Perfect

I am an inveterate perfectionist, though my perfectionism takes a unique and insidious form (below). Distinguishing perfectionism from the desire for excellent results -- the former a compulsion, the latter an admirable drive essential to doing pretty much anything -- is difficult. How do you tell them apart? I think it depends which end you're looking at. I know there were many days when, as a teacher, I left a class all pleased with myself because I had delivered, was brilliant, informed, arti...