And as another year is about to roll in more than a couple of us are considering what we'd like to do differently; as in better.

But, in the pursuit of progression we must be wary of one thing – confusing perfection with greatness.

For perfection is deceptively positive and does not improve our lives and relationships. Rather it undercuts our happiness.

In a recent interview, Brene Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, discussed the difference between perfectionism and healthy striving.

Healthy striving is internal, perfectionism is external and related to what will other people think, she explained.

"It's fear," she tells Oprah, explaining that perfectionists are afraid of not measuring up.

Brown who has spent more than a decade studying perfectionism, vulnerability and shame said that what surprised her most about her research is that there is nothing healthy about perfectionism.

"When perfectionism is driving, shame is always riding shotgun and fear is the annoying back seat driver," Brown says. "Perfectionism is a way of thinking that says this: if I look perfect, do it perfect, work perfect and I live perfect I can avoid or minimise criticism, blame and ridicule."

As a recovering perfectionist, this makes sense. With perfectionism, there is always an impotent tension to it. If things aren't perfect or don't go exactly as planned, you are unable to respond dynamically to the situation because you are frozen by fear.

In a separate interview, Brown discusses how, ironically, perfectionism holds us back from achieving, because to succeed we must risk failure, and if we are afraid of failure we become hamstrung.

Not only this, but recent studies have shown that perfectionism increases stress and cortisol levels in the body and can lead to anxiety and depression.

Striving for greatness and being a wholehearted person instead, through cultivating authenticity, letting go of what people think, is an antidote to perfectionism and perhaps the perfect pursuit for the year ahead.

"Authenticity is a practice – something you choose every day," Brown says. It is the practice, she says, of asking yourself: "Am I going to show up and let myself be seen?"

And this involves, Brown says:

"Letting go of perfectionism."

"When we spend our lives waiting until we're perfect or bulletproof before we walk into the arena, we ultimately sacrifice relationships and opportunities that may not be recoverable, we squander our precious time, and we turn our backs on our gifts, those unique contributions that only we can make," says Brown.

"Perfect and bulletproof are seductive, but they don't exist in the human experience."