Stop being perfect
How I sabotage myself to do it.

Today I got inspired to write a new article. So, I start writing and the title appears on the screen. My fingers are ready, waiting on the keyboard, waiting for the signals from my brain to press the button. But there is no movement, no signals, only noise. Writers block!
Sounding familiar to you? That you have a great idea in your head, or maybe a new piece of code or a few good lines for a new article. You are getting fired up. You want to create that new idea, write that new software feature of publish that awesome article. Time for action!
With a cup of coffee, you jump behind your laptop, open the editor. A fresh blank screen, ready to fill by your fingers, and you start. Staring at the screen for 10, 20, 30 seconds, emptiness, nothing.
One hour later you realise that you just spend one hour searching the web and watching YouTube videos on how to be a better code, better write or generate better ideas, instead of doing the actual work.
I found out it is everywhere in my life:
- Not feeling productive, so what do I do, research on how to be more productive.
- I watch YouTube videos on how to get out of bed early in the morning, while lying in bed in the morning.
- Not getting into the flow, thus do research about getting into the flow.
- Blocked at writing an article, so what do I do, research on writing the best article.
- Not happy with a certain variable name, researching how to write better variable names in your code (and then changing half-way the project all your variable names, because you convinced yourself that the method you just found is way better.)
The reason why this happens, I think it is my perfectionism.
Perfectionism ruins the pleasure of everything. It makes us stressed and affects the quality of our work. Perfection only leads to procrastination and inaction.
Perfection is often fed by a lack of self-esteem. In my case that everyone was better than me and that everyone disliked me because I was not good enough.
Thank you bullying, hello screwed up world.
But that is just BS what I just written down there. The world is not fucked up. Everyone has something worthy inside them to share with the world. We are obliged to ourselves and to the world to fight our perfectionism. We must accept that nobody is perfect nor are we, and that it is way more important to share your idea, message, code with the world. Good is good enough.
It is a fight every day, getting out of bed, disappointing someone, managing a project, and often it knocks me down back to ground. First every day, but now only a few times a month.
And that is OK, what does not kill me only makes me stronger right?
____
Thank you for readying my story, if you liked it, recognised it or have some feedback for me to improve my writing. I like the quote from James Jr. Watson:
“If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.”
— James Jr. Watson
So please let me know, even though I struggle with perfectionism, your feedback is growing me.