The Perfectionist Flaw
How many of you can relate to this, often striving to create the perfect blog post, make our point clear, touch on everything, have just the right word count, we want our site to look good, sound catchy, keyword dense, comment encouraging, and and and................
So to what end? is there such a thing as the perfect post, many times I've sat dumb founded staring at a monitor, wanting to relay something to my readers yet can't seem to find the perfect word(s) or initial approach to use to get on with it already.
For a long time I've been the type that was bent set on doing things my own way because I realized early in my life that if I wanted something done properly, I'd have to do it myself.
Now I'm by no means a selfish person, not in the least, I always try to be of help wherever possible or when the opportunity arises, but on the point of doing it myself so it has to be done perfectly, in my view, IT IS A SELFISH ACT.
Not an intentional one but one born out of habit, a habit of ever growing perfectionism. We feel we must be better that average, must stand waaaay out, yes it's good to be set apart don't get me wrong but we have to set some borders, when you are stumped for days as a result of not getting it 'just right", this is when a little warning light should go off signalling to you "hey buddy, loosen up".
There's no such thing as perfect, we need to accept that, we have to learn to not be so critical of everything, perfectionist are known to be the most harsh on themselves, I know this first hand. So what I guess what I'm wanting to say, and putting this out there for me also as a reminder, is not to take everything so seriously, it can be very damaging, I love my WA journey, I want to savour it, how about you?
I want this to hit home with folks out there like me, let go of some of that tension, I know I need to. I want us all to have a pleasurable experience with our ongoing projects, so let's all make it fun, after all if we can do this, it will never feel like work.
My best to you all and have a fantastic journey.
Sincerely
Ty
Recent Comments
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Dick pretty much pegs it with his comments below. Being meticulous about content is important. But the mindset is actually more of the... "Walk away from it for a day or two...then look at it again" rather than agonizing for hours over the content. I got this from my parents. Dad was a novelist, and mom would do his proof reading and editing. They would do this to get a fresh "Head" on the chapters or articles being written. Not so much for perfection, but from this weird quirk of human brains, that seems to do better if it goes away from the thing for a bit. Fresh eyes so to speak. I have to do this when I'm creating music so it's not just a writers block or anything like that. Many times I've thrown my hands up in the air with frustration as I couldn't get the sound or the something just right on a track. Come back to it a bit later and suddenly...WOW! It's actually okay and ready to be mastered. Other times I have something I think is the next big hit. Then a day or two later I realize it's crap. This is not perfectionism, but rather a sensible (as in "Critical Thinking Skills" ) way of making the quality content we are agonizing over in the first place. And yes it's hard to develop that kind of patience...especially in my case where I cannot seem to get my page moving upward. Even with all the good comments on my website. So I understand real well about the perfect keywords, meta tags, and so on. But when I burn myself out on it...all I accomplish is a bad case of burn out. That serves no purpose at all.
God comments though. Sometimes quality isn't perfect. The little mistakes are what makes us human. Google is not human so I have to remember not to get obsessed with what the machine is doing.
Marty
(hmmm... I hear the faint strains of a Pink Floyd song in the background...do you?) :-)
Ty,
I think that striving to produce a really high quality blog or anything else for that matter is important. I believe what you are talking about is extremism. Maybe just semantics. What I think we should focus on is doing the level best we can do, double checking it and firing it out there. If we sit on it for too long we lay an egg and waste precious time, and time is the stuff life is made of.......Dick
I resonate what you're saying lol, I am one for perfecting, but if you read my blogs of 10 years ago, you'd understand why.
I've now come to the conclusion if you've done your best and if there are still very minor grammar or spelling errors etc (there will always be because we're not perfect) readers are actually quite forgiving.
I like that attitude, though I strive, I know perfection is non existent, what an illogical vicious cycle.
I agree, most of the time this IS fun, but I also have that perfectionist flaw that makes me go over my text again and again. Still, I really do think my writing is getting better, so it's not all bad. Best of luck with your projects and like Kyle says, it doesn't have to be perfect, but it should make some personal connection with the reader. Glyn
I think perhaps the greatest battle is learning how to develop that balance, a perfectionist attitude can be a good honing tool if applied mildly, it's when it becomes excessive that counter productivity starts to kick in
I also fight that perfectionistic nonsense and drive myself crazy! There is and never will be the perfect blog, yet, I keep trying. lol When you grow up learning that only perfectionism is acceptable, it is a really hard thing to break. :)
I know the feeling, I fight many times to accept things in their imperfect state but that embedded life long practice is indeed difficult to rid of.
I've decided to acknowledge as the first step, and take the others one at a time.
Best wishes.
Ty
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Thanks much for the reminder, Ty! Goodness how much this sounds like the place I get into. You should see how many edit pages get created in WP back office while I catch this little typo and that poor worded sentence. YIPES!
Agree with the comment stream here and have learned from it. Thanks for thoughtfully posting.
Linda