Big Magic — Screw Perfection.
{ Men: “Well, I’m 41 percent qualified for this task, so give me the job!” Yes, sometimes the results are ridiculous and disastrous, but sometimes, strangely enough, it works—a man who seems not ready for the task, not good enough for the task, somehow grows immediately into his potential through the wild leap of faith itself. I only wish more women would risk these same kinds of wild leaps. But I’ve watched too many women do the opposite. I’ve watched far too many brilliant and gifted female creators say, “I am 99.8 percent qualified for this task, but until I master that last smidgen of ability, I will hold myself back, just to be on the safe side.” Now, I cannot imagine where women ever got the idea that they must be perfect in order to be loved or successful. (Ha ha ha! Just kidding! I can totally imagine: We got it from every single message society has ever sent us! Thanks, all of human history!) }
As women we have been told most of our life, by society or people close to us, that we are “not good enough” or “leave that to the boys”.and these statements have left lasting impressions on us all. The idea that we must be PERFECT before taking on a task. That our presentation must be PERFECT before we can present it. That our project must be PERFECT before we can start, let alone show it to other people.
This is an agreement that we made with ourselves at a young age and didn’t even know it. One that most of us haven’t really ever given much thought to.
While listening to Liz Gilbert’s voice read me that excerpt from her book, it really made me think. It made me realize how much time I have wasted over my life trying to “perfect” everything before I jumped out into the spotlight and say “HEY I CAN DO THIS”
And I couldn’t help but think how ridiculous that is.
Honestly, it pissed me off a bit. Perfection doesn’t even exist in the first place so why has it been instilled in our minds that it’s ‘necessary’ ?
Recently I started practicing the “post and puke” method. It’s a little game I play with myself after I’m done writing something (much like this) where after a quick proofread to pick out any obvious spelling errors, I just hit post and close the screen.
It stops me from changing it. It stops me from thinking about it too much. It stops me from talking myself out of sharing my thoughts. It stops me from conforming to that voice that says “but but but, is it perfect?”
While listening to Big Magic this morning I realized that I need to “post and puke” with everything in my life, not just my blog entries. I need to incorporate that method into all areas. As long as it feels right to me, perfection is not to be a factor. In that case, nothing is a factor beside what I feel inclined to share, or create, or do.
After all, it’s MY life and it’s MY message!
I’m writing this as a reminder to those who need it. Those who need to reminder that perfection doesn’t exist and we need to push that very thought clear out of our minds.
Screw Perfectionism.
Go be the awesome creature that you are <3
Xx,
Your Project Manager, Productivity Expert, and Positivity Guide
