This hits home at the point I lost my career in 1994.....high standards on myself....high level job....& when the aerospace industry started to die in California.....my firmware engineering position went because no other company wanted to hire me at my high salary without the on the job experience that I didn't specifically have & technology was changing...I had been taking classes at UCLA....but classes didn't matter......my whole life had been put into being a professional....& I failed.....one psychologist added that it was a trauma that I went through also......this was the point when mental illness (anxiety & depression) hit me.....along with all the suicide attempts because I had failed myself. Never was willing to lower my standards....but I was forced into a situation that I didn't want to be in.

I have definitely adapted & other things have hit me along the way....but keeping high standards that I expect out of others like all the health care professionals that failed my mother when she was dying of cancer....not that I expected them to heal her, but to handle the whole situation more professionally than they did, leaving me with a very bad view of my mother at the end of her life.

Our high expectations can really hurt us almost more than they can help at times (or maybe most of the time). It was easier leaving that life behind & starting over fresh for me....but that's really not possible most of the time......I still expect professional work done when I hire it. But when it comes to friends.....I seem to be able to accept people around me for who & what they are.....but there are definitely SOME people that I would NEVER be friends with either.....& there are some that will never be more than acquaintances because I don't want to let them beyond that point. There is nothing wrong with being discerning about the people we come in contact with & who be really become friends with.

But friendships are relationships & every relationship takes WORK & give & take on both parts.....sometimes that giving could be your high standards having to be lowered.....but maybe the other person doesn't want to come up to your standards either......which at the moment may be what keeps others from coming closer to you....maybe the wall you have built to protect yourself....from whatever you feel you need to be protected from?