Perfectionism is rampant in creative circles and it’s the killer of production. There’s advice floating around about making your creative passions careers, treating your blog or craft or art like a j-o-b. To me, this seems like the worst idea. Job has such bad connotation. The only good thing about a job is that you get a paycheck (which I think is where that stems from). But why, why would I want to turn the things I love so very much, into jobs? Do you get what I’m saying? Do what you love has turned into make what you love a job. What does this have to do with perfectionism, anyway? I think when you create art you have to accept that it’s messy and unfinished. A lot of artists feel their work is never finished. A lot of writers get published but that doesn’t mean it feels finished. But as creatives who are doing this for a living, we want everything to be perfect. We want to publish perfect blog posts, create perfect DIYs or perfect products to sell on Etsy (which by the way, I get, but also, it’s handmade, we should appreciate that it doesn‘t look like a machine made it), etc.
The danger of striving for perfection with art is that it’s an impossible ideal. Maybe if your job is data entry you can perfect your work, but if it’s painting? If it’s blogging? In Daring Greatly, there’s a section dedicated to perfectionism and how this impossible ideal can lead to disappointment, unworthiness, and shame. That perfect is the enemy of good. This sums up everything I’ve been feeling lately. If you wait until a blog post is perfect, you will never hit publish. If you wait until the project is flawless, you’ll never complete it, and no one will ever be able to see it. Not only do you need to accept that things aren’t perfect in order to evolve with your craft (and literally to get things done) but you have to own it. Don’t put something out there and pretend it’s perfect, nothing is. Even if you come back to something later, it’s still perfect, it’s going to have evolved. I find myself more and more identifying with evolution, not perfection.
I’ve honestly never been a perfectionist. I care about the process too much. But in a world where this impossible idea is the ultimate prize, I’ve noticed myself not wanting to share x project before it’s perfect. But I remember that that’s not why I started, I started because I wanted to share the process. I think in our businesses we can all care about excellence (Brown also talks about how striving for excellence has nothing to do with perfectionism) and make sure we’re presenting our authentic and true selves to our friends, our customers, or followers, without subscribing to perfect. I know it’s easier said than done, considering I’ve known and worked with so many people with so much stock in perfect. But it’s time to let it go. We all have work on our computers or in our offices or studios that no one has seen because it just didn’t seem quite right. It’s as important as the stuff we share. Instead of striving for perfect, here are a few ideas for productivity + creativity:
Share the process.
Make it a point to dedicate a monthly post to sharing not just a final product, but the steps you took (and even failures) to get there.
Cultivate skills for the sake of learning, not sharing.
We work to learn a new skill: photography, Photoshop, design, in order to be able to say we can and offer it to our clients/customers/followers. Actually take the time to cultivate those skills, even if this is the part no one will see. It slows things down and allows you to enjoy what you do. Because in all honesty, the desire for perfection is outward, we’re totally cool with imperfection as long as no one sees it anyway.
Discuss failure.
Luckily people are opening up more about their failures and the fact that their lives aren’t as perfect as they look on Instagram. I’m one of those people who likes to reserve things like Instagram and Pinterest for a pretty, aspirational feed. In this way, they’re inspiration galleries, not necessarily reflections of all my work (which like I said, isn’t perfect). It’s fine to reserve spaces for the ideal. But make sure you’re spending time discussing failure too. It’s the only way to get past it, and talking about it over coffee or writing a post will probably help you realize that what you think of is failure is really just learning. We all need that reminder.
Things go really fast as a creative entrepreneur (in any sense of the word). There’s no time or sense in waiting until everything is perfect. We need to stop thinking of “I’m a perfectionist” as a positive quality that helps you do better work. If you have a good idea, the time is now to go for it, not when you have it all figured out. As for thinking of your craft as a job, go for it if it’s what motivates you. For me, I already have a job, I want my own work (which is under that self-employed umbrella but in the work-in-progress category) to feel more like life’s work or purpose or intent, than just a job or a paycheck.
What are your thoughts on perfectionism?
Allie Bigoness says
Wow I stumbled upon this post at the perfect moment! I was originally looking at the The Blog Market tutorials for coding as I am having a perfectionist moment with my blog design. I’ve always wanted to be a graphic designer but they didn’t have that major at my college. I started my blog thinking that this would be a great way to learn and thinking I could learn it quickly. I was wrong ha and the perfectionist in me did not like that. This post really helped and it is incredibly helpful. Definitively saving it for reference for future perfectionist moments. Thank you!
Angela says
Thanks for reading! Coding is one of the hardest things because you have to get everything right! Luckily with other creative pursuits, letting go of perfectionism can really help you grow.