Perfectionism

Another inspiring lesson from Elizabeth Gilbert's creativity workshop: perfectionism is the enemy of creativity — don’t wait till you have everything to start executing.

It’s not like I just learned this today. I’ve been aware for a long time that I have a “perfectionism” stubbornness when doing certain things, usually things that I care about. I’m worried it would mean I don’t care enough if I don’t strive for “perfection”. Also, I worry that other people would blame me for not trying my best… Well, there can be many worries that go together with the mindset of perfectionism. As it sometimes turns out, I end up delaying tasks or procrastinating because I try to prepare everything before I start.

Therefore, I know it’s not right. I feel that it requires two things to change the mindset: being aware when I’m in the “perfectionism mindset”, and an incredible amount of courage to put the worries aside and go with my gut. Sometimes, I don’t have these two at the same time.

However, something must be done to break this: I need to get courageous and do something to get a head start. Failures are very likely to happen. I may get blushed but there are opportunities to do it again.

Ahh now I know why I wrote so much on this topic, because I haven’t yet failed enough to be strong.