Disregard Your Perfectionism and Write Anyway
Perfectionism is a slow-burning disease that preys upon writers and non-writers alike, causing you to criticize yourself and the world around you incessantly.
Often, it is unconscious, coloring your world without your permission, and this negative outlook does more than make you a poor party companion or a grating roommate. It prevents you from living up to your potential by making you wildly afraid of failure.
I grew up with a critical eye pointed at the world and an even larger one at myself. Unknowingly, I had a background of constant negative chatter in my mind that was making life much harder than it needed to be.
Though I still have many of those tendencies, bringing awareness to them has allowed me to recognize when it’s happening more often. I can consciously choose to listen to these thoughts, or replace them with more productive ones.
But recently, when I decided to pursue writing as more than an occasional hobby, the stifling thoughts arose again.
Why should I bother writing anything when so many other writers write about the same subjects?
Why should I publish my writing before I feel that it’s exceptional?
What is the point of writing at all?
I’ve pondered these questions and many more while trying to stay on course with my writing habits, and I’ve come to a few conclusions that may help you, too.
Writing Helps You Understand Yourself Better
The process of writing helps you organize your thoughts and discover more about yourself. Even if you never publish a word, writing in a journal lets you explore the events in your life, the emotions you experience, and what constitutes your being.
Increasing your self-awareness through writing allows you to go through life intentionally and improve your circumstances and relationships as a result. Understanding yourself as well as you can is an essential component of building a life that you genuinely love.
Writing Helps You Understand the World Better
In addition to understanding yourself, it’s important to make sense of the world around you. Finding patterns in the chaos helps you become more empathetic toward others, and gives you the feeling of control that is necessary for living a fulfilling life.
When trying to understand subjects that are important to you, writing helps you synthesize the information that you have and find the holes that still need to be filled. Putting things on paper lays your thought process bare, and will quickly show you what is still left to be discovered.
Writing Helps Others, Too
We publish our writing to connect with others. To inspire, entertain, or help them in some way. You do not need to be the world’s most prolific writer to accomplish these objectives.
There is only one of you, which means anything you write will naturally have a signature no one else will ever have.
This is an invaluable point to remember. It could mean you publish a story one day that hits just the right person in just the right way- one that you may have scrapped when you came across a writer that morning who you decided you would never live up to.
Don’t let great writers discourage you. View their mastery as something to strive for while knowing you still have something to offer along the way.
Finally, let go of your ego. Your ego uses negativity as a protective strategy. It is trying to evade pain you may have experienced earlier in life when you felt judged or embarrassed.
But if you can reframe your failures as part of a constant growth process, you will have more grace when talking to yourself and others. Then, you will have the tenacity to keep going. So, keep going.
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