Action Killer #1: Perfectionism

An email from a friend today triggered my thoughts on why I don’t do the things I set out to do…

He mentioned that he had begun his writing, and now he just needed to go back and get himself to edit the whole thing. Here was my advice to him.

Don’t do it. Get used to blogging and not editing. Once you have consistency and confidence that blogging is a habit, go back and correct, but don’t ever let editing stop you from creating the content. Leave that to the editors that review your book.

Seriously, it’s like me and the piano. I never went anywhere because I didn’t keep with the process. Notes had to be perfect and after a while I was sick of beating myself up, so I stopped practicing, my mom took me out of lessons and I am here today, not a pianist because of my fear of making a mistake.

Well, tonight I almost didn’t post, missing my commitment. I could have said that it was too late, that I was tired, that even if I did write it wouldn’t be that much or that profound, but here it is, short & sweet.

Perfectionism has killed my action taking in the past, but when I relinquish my need to have things just right I really do get much further and learn lots along the way.

Do you struggle with perfectionism in your writing? In other things in life? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let me know that I’m not alone!