Challenging Perfectionism in Content Creation
If you are a content creator, you may be all too familiar with the experience of sitting down to write, record, or sketch a new piece of work when you become suddenly sidelined by feelings of discomfort, anxiety, or an unmoving mental block. The inspiration bug that nipped you moments ago may feel like a dream as the worry sets in and you stare at a screen or piece of paper as blank as your mind.
You remember that you are on a deadline; this project needs to be done by end of day. You try to bring your attention and focus back to what you are trying to do, but the added pressure and stress hinders you further. You type out a sentence or two, start to record your video or podcast, or sketch out a few lines on your page, and stop. You notice a typo, fumbled over saying a word, or sketched your proportions slightly off. The imperfections bring your progress to a halt. Frustration bubbles up and the self-defeating thoughts kick in. Maybe you walk away and avoid the project at this point, or try to progress, feeling mentally jammed and working slowly. Every word, every movement comes with the thought, “This isn’t good enough.” The clock ticks away, a reminder that time is running out. The pressure continues to mount and you feel like you’ve gotten nowhere.
Getting this section out of my head and into the ether that is the Internet was an exasperating 15 minutes. All of the mental resources poured into worrying about creating something perfect rather than getting lost in the act of creating — why? Crippling anxiety over a personal project which likely won’t draw many eyes — why? My answers to those questions may be different than yours, but the experience of fretting over perfectionism could very well be eerily similar. Perfectionism shows up in different ways for everyone, but as someone going through the motions who hasn’t figured it all out, I have some tips. First, I want to get a hard truth out of the way:
Our work will never be perfect.
There, I said it. Now let’s get to the tips.
Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash
Reconnect With Your “Why”
This tip is quite fundamental for challenging perfectionism.
When stuck, we can shove aside the anxiety and stress for a moment and think about the purpose behind our work.
Are we pumping out a blog post to keep the content ball rolling for our job? Are we recording that podcast to bring awareness to an issue important to us? Are we illustrating a cover for a children’s book because we wish that book had been around when we were young? These are all valid reasons for taking on a content project. Not every act of content creation is motivated by a strong personal desire to put something impactful out into the world, and that is okay. Content creation is often just part of the territory of being employed, and the “why” behind it is to maintain that employed status.
The content projects in which we have a deep personal connection to the work or purpose of the work often come with the most blockades arising from wanting to put out an absolutely perfect end result because it is more challenging to mentally and emotionally detach from them compared to fluff projects. Isn’t it better to put our work out there and contribute to our mission than to withhold our work because we believe it isn’t good enough?
The words of Brené Brown swirl in my head when I start obsessing over perfection: “I’m here to get it right, not be right.” That punchy one-liner was used in the context of antiracism, but I find it extremely useful to apply it to the process of content creation. The act of sitting down to write this blog post with intent to get it out of draft mode is getting it right. As for the specific words, ideas, formatting, or images…I know there is someone out there who will believe something isn’t right.
Create Now, Edit Later
One of the steps for challenging perfectionism is challenging the mental inertia which comes along with it. Thank Newton for sorting this one out for us: “An object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” The converse holds true, as well, and it is the “object at rest” bit which poses a problem for us.
The trick is to find that unbalanced force within ourselves and channel it to help us get started. We can give ourselves permission to word vomit, verbally blabber on, or sketch the most horrendously disproportionate human hand ever. A polished result isn’t the focus here, it’s to just get the process going.
When we get stuck because the unhelpful thoughts start to creep in, we can remind ourselves that nothing is permanent. We can let ourselves let go of the belief that what we are working on has to be done well in the first iteration. We are blessed with the existence of the backspace key, Adobe Premiere and Audacity, and erasers. We can (and probably should) use the everloving hell out of them later on! Rather than edit as we go, the first step is to get our creations out of our heads and out there in all of their janky beauty.
Put Things Into Perspective
Get ready for a hit of logical thinking.
Perfection simply does not exist. The binary of “good” and “bad” is so subjective, it’s essentially a baseless concept. Perfection pushes this binary to the extreme. Benchmarking our work against this red herring is a fruitless habit and will sends us on a wild goose chase. We don’t need to be Captain Ahab.
We may see our work as utter garbage, but the next person to bring it a second pair of eyes may see it as incredible work. Who is “correct” in this instance? Our opinions, values, and perceptions cannot be standardized; therefore perfect work cannot exist.
We strive for a nonexistent goal when we are better off just getting the work done. We may get lost in edit mode, constantly returning to edit the work because if we do just one more edit the piece will be perfect. Work towards slamming that “publish” button, uploading that podcast, or sending off that illustration to the publisher without second thought.
We may be hit with a wave of sender’s remorse after letting go, but we need to acknowledge it is now out of our hands so that we can get it off of our chest and feel the sense of accomplishment that comes with getting it done.
Photo by Daniel Lim on Unsplash
Take Breaks
Avoidance and procrastination are not one in the same with stepping away to give ourselves time to reset and come back with a clear head. They are the antithesis of working towards a goal, whereas a break is a means for accomplishing a goal. We can throw out any beliefs we may hold that giving ourselves a break is an indicator of laziness or lack of dedication.
Break time can be used to refuel our bodies, reconnect with our “why,” put things into perspective, do a quick meditation, watch a silly dog video, or anything which will help us break through that mental block and move forward with what we are creating. I came across a nifty strategy for remaining on track while allowing ourselves some breaks. Work with focus for X amount of time, take a break for Y amount of time, and keep repeating until the project is complete. Writing this post, I am working with intent for 15 minutes, then giving myself a 2 minute break to stand up, let my mind wander, or scroll through Reddit.
When the inner perfection detectives come knocking on the door again, it may be time for a break. We must keep ourselves accountable for returning to the work and completing it in a timely manner. Accountability is really the difference between avoidance/procrastination and taking a break.
Think Smaller
This tip is more of a general approach than it is a tactic to employ in the moment of being stuck while creating content, but it does help.
Breaking apart our perfectionism into smaller parts can help us bring mindfulness to the mental obstacles we are facing and turn them into actionable items. To put this into a more practical sense, the first step would be to recognize that we are experiencing a drive for our content to be perfect. Next, we break down that drive into the behaviors and beliefs underlying it so that we can challenge each piece of the puzzle, rather than take on the whole problem at once.
We may be perfectionists because we hold onto unrealistic expectations for ourselves that came from high standards we set after comparing ourselves to other people or other work, and those comparisons happened because we are insecure.
These individual pieces can be acted upon. We can take measures to mitigate our tendency to compare ourselves against others, like limiting how much time we spend reading other blogs, listening to other podcasts in our chosen topic, or looking at others’ art. That’s not to say we should exist within a bubble by entirely avoiding work that is not our own, but we may benefit by taking better control over our exposure and our responses to that exposure.
We can also alter the standards we set for ourselves. This may be allowing ourselves to make mistakes (inevitable, given our human condition) without beating ourselves up, or setting achievable goals. If our goal is perfection, we are setting ourselves up for failure because we will never attain it and will only be adding to the building blocks of our perfectionism. By aiming low at first, we will hit targets and build confidence. Over time, we raise the goals higher while staying mindful of not shooting for 100%.
We owe it to ourselves to strive for excellence in our content, not perfection. Though it takes work, practice, and time, overcoming perfectionism is an attainable goal. We can do this!
This post ordinarily would have taken me an incredibly long time to complete, or just wouldn’t have come to fruition without doing these interventions. Is it perfect? No. Will it ever be? No. Did I do my best writing it? Yes. Am I happy with it? Yes, and that is what matters.
