Perfection is a Prison

“Perfection is a prison and a self-made one. Whatever you’re making, it doesn’t have to be perfect.” – Scott Berkun

In the materials for the first month of Praxis, there is an article called Don’t be Precious (with your ideas). The idea of the post by Scott Berkun is that in order to produce great work you can’t be afraid to try new things. You can’t wait around trying to perfect something. Sometimes you’ve got to just give something a shot and then go with it.

Holding onto drafts and never letting anyone see them doesn’t help you become great. You need to try new things and get feedback in order to improve. In order to create, you need to trust your judgement, but a lot of the time you can find a fault in even the best work you’ve ever produced. Read about Franz Kafka, he wanted to destroy what later became his most popular novels.  He was a perfectionist and had an impossible standard set for himself.

I’ve got some perfectionist tendencies. I used to procrastinate a lot, and now that I’m becoming more effective at actually getting things done, I find myself being extra critical of my own work. I’ll write something, and then not like it. So I’ll keep changing things, adding things, getting rid of things. Never really getting closer to having something to post.

Just take a look at all the draft posts I have sitting around. Some of them are just me fucking around, but a couple of them are probably reasonably good. I was just letting fear hold me back from getting real feedback about my ideas.

I wrote something about dying and liked the ideas, but I wrote it in a way that was out of my comfort zone. I’ve re-read it over and over again. I’m being precious about it. Giving into fear instead of taking risks. Even though I know that taking risks are the only way to ever end up with anything good.

I’m trying to be less precious. To post some things that are out of my comfort zone. It might get a little weird around here, but at least it won’t be boring.