Place: the couch
Poison: Pepsi max
Favourite things: an audience with an established author…
Perfectionism is a wilderbeast!
It roams around my mind and heart awaiting its next dream to devour.
It whispers in my ear, ‘truly is it really good enough?, who do you think you are to have a go at that?, what if?’
Lies.
Dream-defilers.
Gross graffiti of the mind.
Perfectionism says that if it can’t be perfect then don’t even have a go.
It has held me back so many times. I have a certain manuscript that’s hibernated untouched on my desktop in the shadow of perfectness.
Many times I have said ‘my second book would have been so easy to publish, if it wasn’t for the first!’
Many times I have defended my punctuation and grammar on this blog, out of fear of mistakes and slack dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.
In my heart I know that this blog is a free writing style. It’s a conversation. The voice is way more important to me than the literary excellence. Yet I find myself defending and excusing. Then I start to pull back and the perfectionist in me yells loudly ‘See I told you!’
This afternoon I sat in an audience with a great fellow writer friend listening to a live interview with Jodi Picoult and her daughter. I came away inspired, I left the building on cloud nine creating many different plot lines in my head as I danced down the sidewalk.
Then the slimy, green monster called ‘perfectionism’ snuck up and tried to whisper its taunts.
Today I told it to get lost!
I told perfectionism to get screwed. I may not just perform my duties with as much excellence as my mind requires, I may not be great at some things…but I am great at others.
So here’s a big thumbs down to having it all together. It’s basically overrated. I’m looking forward to just having a go and giving my best.
Putting in plenty of effort, but leaving the critical voice of displeasure behind.
How about you?
What do you stop yourself from doing because of perfectionism?
A
This is a great post. I love the art work too-yours? I’ve also been thinking about this.
If we wait until everything is perfect, we may never actually end up doing anything.
“The maxim, “Nothing prevails but perfection,” may be spelled PARALYSIS.”
? Winston Churchill
“I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.”
? Michael J. Fox
I have just finished looking at my book (again) and keep seeing imperfections. It’s never ending. It’s as good as it’s going to get this time. The next one will be better.
I don’t know how many days I have left in my life so I guess I just better get on with it.
You are inspiring! xxx