Perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough that we should try again. -Julia Cameron I have a confession to make...
Forgive me if I might sound a little blunt in this post, but I just wanted to be honest with you.
Iam a perfectionist.
I can’t help it; Perfectionism is something that I have always struggled with. I always try to avoid mediocrity. It’s either full on or not at all. I think this could also be seen as addictive behavior. I do something a lot or I don’t do it at all. I like learning new things, but I prefer to master something I love to do and be good at doing it, rather than learning a new task through “trial and error”.
You can say I’m a coward in a sense-so to speak.
The good news is I’m not perfect. and I will never be.
Blogging in the past few weeks has taught me the BEST LESSON not only through writing but through my personal life…
Everyweek I noticed, I’m overthinking and overanalyzing what topic to write, and every time I’m done writing it, I’m proofreading it several hundred times (I maybe exaggerating). Some posts will capture those inspired moments and lessons I’ve treasured in life. And others will be average or maybe not even. Some might even have grammatical errors or odd phrases (mind you my primary language is not English). Some might be even boring.
But I guess, it’s all part of me. All I can promise here is PURE HONESTY, which I figured will help me so much along the way. I decided to write, and see what comes out. Not as easy as I would like, but better than I ever have in the past.
I never thought that it would make such an impact in my life and towards self improvement. What’s even more comforting to know is that as I express my views and experiences, I am also learning in the process.
I’ve transformed from a Perfectionist to a Healthy striver.
My message here is to inspire, but it is also based on being realistic. This makes being a perfectionist such a vague and idiotic idea: Achieving the impossible. And, I don’t mean this in the emotional, touchy, Dream Big and Reach for the Stars type of impossible. What I mean is that this is continuously self defeating because you constantly can’t live up to your own unreal expectations type of impossible.
Answer.com dictionary defined perfectionism as a propensity for being displeased with anything that is not perfect or does not meet extremely high standards That’s a risky way to live. You are rarely satisfied, and then more often than not unhappy. Which leads to a lot of failure, discontentment, and hopelessness.
I need to constantly remind myself that it’s okay to screw up, or make a move even if its not the right move. Perfectionism is pathetic. it’s all fear based. It’s a cowardly way to exist.
The only way I know to resist this is to doing it wrong. A lot. The more mistakes I make, the easier it is to realize it’s not the end of the world. I’m not even going to proofread this article. Okay, maybe I’ll proofread it twice or three times, but just not the usual 30 times.Lol
It is such a humble and life changing experience.
So tell me, how about you…Do you any confession to share?
When it comes to academia, I am a perfectionist. In life, I'm not so perfect (Nobody can ever reach perfection as a father). Like you, either when I'm blogging or writing a paper, I tend to overthink things. I look for exact word choice, strive to be articulate and erudite, and I tear my hair out over it. But I see your point about the therapeutic value of blogs. I found that, for myself, I try to let my feelings reign in my blogs and let the words subordinate them. This is completely antithetical to the way I ususally write. So I, like you, continue to slog on, ceaselessly striving to accept my mediocrity, my imperfections, with elan, but sometimes my intellect will have nothing to do with it! But I think a little struggle is good, it drives one to continually improve and evolve. And what more can we ask of ourselves than that?
ReplyDeleteMy confession, I am a slacker. I wish I had the motivation to even try to be a perfectionist but I dont.So you going over your papers a 100 times is fantastic..it will get you somewhere one day. When it comes to school Im an underachiever. I have potential but laziness seems to take over most of the time. Dont get me wrong I get the work done, but it could have been better...dont lose your mind trying to get everything perfect though...
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