Overcoming Perfectionism: Some Quick Thoughts ❤

Life, work, the process of writing two novels (one of which is very close to completion) and other such happenings have made me an infrequent poster on Steemit of late, but today I'm feeling inspired to pop in and share my two cents on the perils of perfectionism and how to overcome it. 😇

My greatest writing struggle has always been the temptation to lose sleep worrying over which words are EXACTLY RIGHT 😱 and then becoming so paralysed by the fear of using the WRONG WORDS, I fail to move the story forward at all. I saw a fantastic post on Facebook earlier that perfectly explains how to break out of a perfectionist rut. ❤

The post was based on a comment from a Tumblr user called bananonbinary which said, "one of the hardest things to learn as a depressed former Gifted Kid (TM) is that half-assed is better than nothing. Take the 50%, 40%, even 20% job. Scrubbing your face is better than not taking a shower at all. Picking up your clothes is better than never cleaning. Nibbling on some bread is better than starving. DO THINGS HALFWAY. NOW YOU ARE 100% BETTER OFF THAN BEFORE."

A reply by redheadhatchet said, "One of my college professors used to say 'anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.' I didn't understand for years because I didn't do anything poorly, I couldn't do anything poorly, I had to Do Everything Perfectly (TM). But brushing your teeth for 30 seconds is better than not brushing them at all when 2 minutes seems exhausting. Doing 10 minutes of yoga is better than 10 minutes of sitting when 30 minutes of cardio sounds impossible. Changing my clothes is good when a whole shower is impossible. Standing on the porch for a few minutes is worth it after being in the house for three straight days because I don't have the energy to go anywhere. Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly...because doing it poorly is better than not doing it."

🌹❤

I am now beginning to make the greatest progress I've ever made as a writer by allowing myself to pepper my manuscripts with silly remarks such as: 'I don't get this bit, will fill it in later when I have a better idea as to what the hell is going on'; 'I don't know where this chapter actually goes yet, but I'll shove it in here for the LOLs'; or 'this is future Aisling's problem, sucks to be future Aisling. 😁'

I rarely get the chance to visit Steemit these days, but I also want to acknowledge the incredibly powerful role that @freewritehouse has played in helping me to become a more confident writer. Even though I don't often get to contribute to the Freewrite prompts nowadays, I will always be deeply grateful for the way in which the freewriting process freed my mind, helping me to break away from the shackles of perfectionism.

THANK YOU, @freewritehouse. I know I'm not here very often, but I hope that when my first novel is done and dusted, and I'm working on just one book rather than two, I will get to come back to you and answer your wonderful daily prompts with every iota of my old enthusiasm. ❤