Stop Being A Perfectionist And Start Publishing Your Work
Published is better than perfect.
This email is part four of a 5-day email series where I share five short lessons or insights that I wish I learned sooner when I started writing online.
(Click here to read yesterday’s email, where we talked about how to stop overthinking your content ideas.)
Lesson #4: Published Is Better Than Perfect
As Salvador Dali once said, “Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.”
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having high standards and wanting to produce high-quality output. In fact, those are great qualities to have as a writer.
But if you’re endlessly tweaking, changing, and overthinking your writing, it prevents you from consistently publishing your work.
That’s when perfectionism becomes problematic.
Again, quality matters. But a large part of success as an online writer also comes down to publishing consistently.
You can’t expect to grow an audience and earn an income from your writing if you only publish the occasional article here and there.
You have to show up consistently on people’s feeds (or in their email inboxes) if you want to make an impact and attract a following.
That’s why I always say:
Published is better than perfect.
A fascinating experiment mentioned in the book Art & Fear showed that letting go of perfectionism is one of the fastest ways to produce higher-quality output.
In this experiment, the teacher of a pottery class split his class into two groups.
Group A: This group had to make one pot a day for 30 days
Group B: This group had to work on a single pot for 30 days and try to make it as perfect as possible
At the end of the month, the teacher judged the quality of all the pots.
Without exception, the ten best pots all came from group A (the quantity group). None of the pots in the top ten came from group B (the perfection group).
This experiment teaches an important lesson:
Quantity leads to quality.
In other words, write more and publish more. It’s the fastest way to become a better creator.
Let go of perfectionism and start shipping your work.
Want To Conquer Perfectionism And Start Writing Today?
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In just seven days, we’ll show you exactly how to start writing online and make your first dollars from your work
I’ll be back in your inbox tomorrow with the last lesson I wish I had learned sooner in my online writing journey.
Talk tomorrow,
Jari
I let perfection stop me from so many things, but as I get older I seem to care less about perfection, not sure if it's an age thing or an experience thing though.
Don't let perfect get in the way of good!