Excessive seriousness can sometimes come from trying too hard to live life in a particular way. Say you are highly focused on the goal of eating well, preparing only gluten-free, super-food meals for yourself. Chances are good that if somebody offers you some cake at a birthday party, you'll get stern, uncomfortable, and give a long-winded explanation about your diet. Imagine what the person who offered you the cake is thinking: "Geez, it's just a piece of cake. What's the big deal?"  While goals are great, pursuing them with such fervor can make tiny setbacks seem like enormous hurdles, causing the things that you take seriously to become more and more minute. Research actually exposes that perfectionism is linked with less success and productivity because it often comes along with procrastination. Sometimes seriousness happens when we see everything as evidence of our abilities and value as people. Remember that student who acts like every tiny assignment is as important as the final exam? Even one bad grade signals that he is a bad student, on track to fail.  When everything feels like a performance of your worth, even trivial tasks or errands become moments where you need to prove yourself. Also try to pick up on whether or not vulnerability is difficult for you. At work and at home, we are subtly asked to put up strong fronts of high, expert functioning where all facets of life are concerned. The result is that we become reluctant to show any signs of uncertainty or emotional reactions to stress. This can be even more pronounced if you have high expectations put upon you, or if those in your life already see you as high achieving. Are you trying to maintain your reputation of being a do-all hard worker? With capitalist society's great focus on efficiency and productivity, being able to set and reach goals is esteemed to the utmost. It is easy to lose sight of the fact that this is just one tactic that is particularly good for business. When it is applied to all areas of our lives, we get convinced that...

TL;DR in Vietnamese:
Suy nghĩ về việc theo đuổi sự hoàn hảo. Đặt vấn đề nếu bạn đang cố chứng minh bản thân. Cân nhắc nền văn hóa của chúng ta có thưởng công cho các định hướng mục tiêu. Chú ý khi nào sự nghiêm khắc trở thành sự phòng thủ. Tìm hiểu một số ảnh hưởng quan trọng hóa.