You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, nor be attached to inaction.
After weeks of self reflection, I’ve discovered my perfectionist tendencies. This was an uncomfortable truth as I take pride in my (supposed) ability to create things out of nothing in almost no time. My identity had been shaken.
I realized that “Perfectionist” - not to be confused with OCD - is more than just “A person who strives for everything to be ‘perfect’ or ‘a certain way’“. For many of us, it is a crutch, an excuse, a justification, a particularly seductive source of Resistance (with a capital R). Perfectionism is one of my greatest sources of Resistance.
Examples of Resistance in my life:
- I can’t show this to anyone yet, it’s not ready
- I have to read everything about the topic before I can start (a.k.a Information gathering - boy will this f you up.)
- We can’t ship this yet, it’s not
yet - I don’t have all the resources I need, I’ll wait until I get XYZ, then I’ll be ready
- My thoughts on subject ABC differ greatly from influential and smart person JKL, I must be wrong. This was a bad idea anyways.
- I can’t publish this post yet, (a) My website doesn’t look great yet (b) It’s not long enough (c) I admit some shortcomings, ..(n)
- … (I can go on for days)
I’ve used perfection to escape vulnerability, and as a result found it difficult to create art. Definitions of art differ across individuals, and that’s what apeals to me most about it. For me art is a function of authenticity, vulnerability and self reflection.
Speaking about the writing process for authors, from the book “The War of Art”: The hard part is not the writing, its the sitting down to work.
So what does all this mean for me. Well … I don’t know yet, but I do know that a maker’s job is to make, and make I will. I will make anything and everything. I will suit up every morning, while I still can, look Resistance in the eye and say “bring it the f*ck on.”
Thats it. See you next time.
This hurried post is written in 20-30 minutes, but no matter how long I spend on it (or how long it ends up), I doubt you will empathize unless you tangle with the original author’s work. The works I call out here are:
- The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
- 4000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
- The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga
- Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
- Do the Work by Steven Pressfield