Well, the universe has expanded to smack me along side the head. Again. Two recent posts from bloggers I follow wielded their respective two-by-four planks to say, “Listen up, Lucy!”
First came Kristen Lamb and a post on perfectionism. Then Marie Forleo talked about confidence with a quote from Lao Tzu that I LOVE:
“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.”
(By the way, if you are in business or thinking about it and aren’t following these two women, just do it.)
Perfectionism sucks. Let’s just put that out there. It’s tied in to the whole confidence thing. “Do I believe in myself enough to…” whatever it is I’m considering. Or do I change and tweak for wa-a-a-ay too long?
Like this post. Rather than publish the initial draft – which made me cry with its simplicity and emotion – I fussed and messed with the text, placement, fonts. It always has to be more. Better. Perfect.
No. It. Doesn’t.
The world is waiting for the gifts that only YOU can provide. When you wait until you have the confidence it (whatever IT is) is perfect, you deny others the opportunity to share your talents.
Don’t do that.
Life is too short. And it would be a pity for the world to not see your shiny magnificence. This is the one time when distraction by bright shiny objects *ooh squirrel!* is a good thing. Just sayin’.
Hard truth —> With very few exceptions, the reality is that no one else CARES if it’s perfect or not.
Do it.
This perfectionist did. With no prior experience, I took classes, surrounded myself with talented people and am publishing my debut novel on March 7.
Is it perfect? Nope. Never will be. And I’m okay with that.
Am I confident? Not just no, but HELL, no.
And I’m okay with that, too.
Show the world what you’re made of. We’re waiting.
You are so right. Perfectionism is pretty much impossible and is often just an excuse for not taking a final, brave step. I know I use it as an excuse far too often and I really need to stop. Thank you for this post x
We all need a smack, er, reminder on occasion. Adore you, Clare! Give yourself more credit. My two cents worth…
“Hard truth —> With very few exceptions, the reality is that no one else CARES if it’s perfect or not.”
Exactly.
Best of luck with your book launch!
How are you going with writing the next one? (o;
The next book is in revisions – working on the third one in the series. Thanks for stopping by, Deb!