I have a few projects in the works (that I’m excited to share with you soon!), but I wanted to share an old piece of advice that I remembered while working on my drafts:
Done is better than perfect.
A PhD student shared these words with me when I was a first year grad student. My first big paper was due, and although I had finished it ahead of schedule, I still hadn’t turned it in. I wanted to read through it a few more times to make sure everything was just right.
“Done is better than perfect,” she told me. “You can always find reasons to delay. Submit the paper so that you can move onto the next thing.”
Since I was deep in the throws of OCD at the time, this concept felt revelatory.
Relief flooded through me. My paper didn’t need to be perfect, it just needed to be good enough to call done. I could keep going round and round with the same content if I wanted to– torturing myself in pursuit of making it even better– but that would prevent me from moving forward.
Perfect doesn’t exist. It’s an illusion that keeps us from our best work, paralyzing us with the fear that we’ll never measure up.
I’ll never improve or advance as a writer unless I can move past the perfectionism trap.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about my writing (& my creative pursuits) as part of my legacy. When I’m gone, I’d rather leave behind an imperfect body of work than of a bunch of incomplete documents on my computer. I want my kids to see that I I did it; that I let go of perfectionism and gave it my best shot. I want to have something to show for all the time that I’ve invested in these projects– a finished entity that my kids can hold in their hands.
So I keep returning to this advice: done is better than perfect.
Reader, if there’s something that you’ve been putting off because you’re struggling with perfectionism, this is your sign. Hit publish, send the pitch, or whatever your version is. Trust that the wings you’ve built are ready to fly. It may not be perfect, but at least it will get to see the light of day. And you’ll be better for it!