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With the proliferation of podcasts or books focused on personal development and the influence of carefully crafted lifestyles on social media, more and more singles are considering putting an end to the relentless pursuit of perfection, or even perfection. question. Because this quest can lead to mental exhaustion called “Betterment Burnout”.
What if we stopped chasing perfection? By constantly seeking to improve, the opposite effect occurs. People become desperate and end up experiencing psychological fatigue known as Betterment Burnout. This weariness is seen among single people, around half of whom (51%) feel obliged to constantly seek to improve themselves to find love, according to a Bumble* study unveiled at the start of the year.
When the quest for perfection leads to exhaustion
For Dr. Caroline West, relationship and sexuality expert at Bumble, Betterment Burnout stems from the confinements imposed by the Covid crisis: “Even today, many of us are feeling post-lockdown fatigue due to the constant pressure to learn new skills, succeed in side projects, and juggle multiple responsibilities, all with success.“.
She continues: “Betterment Burnout becomes inevitable when this pressure is amplified by constant comparison on social media. The idealized personalities we see online contribute to feelings of personal dissatisfaction, fueling the never-ending quest for the ‘perfect self’.‘”.
Seek happiness more than perfection
To avoid this mental exhaustion, the singles surveyed by Bumble** decided to swap the search for perfection with that of happiness. A quarter of singles around the world have decided “to focus on joy rather than self-improvement“, particularly single Gen Z and young millennials (32% among those under 35). In France, two thirds of women now want to make decisions for their own happiness, by detaching themselves from the standards imposed by society 40% of them also look for partners who accept them as they are, without trying to change them.
Indeed, single people are now turning to prioritizing themselves, putting their personal esteem before the love of others. It is therefore not surprising to see trends like “consider dating” – consisting of favoring the quality of encounters rather than quantity – flourishing in the world of dating.
- *The study was conducted by Censuswide among 3,021 representative national consumers aged over 18 in the UK, France, Spain, Italy and Germany between December 18, 2023 and December 20, 2023.
- **The study was conducted by Bumble using an internal survey between September 21 and 26, 2023 with a sample of 26,849 Bumble members worldwide, including in France.
Slide: 30 quotes about happiness