If you can’t do it perfectly, why do it at all?
All my life, that phrase has nagged me in the back of my mind. It didn’t matter if I was doing schoolwork, playing sports, or even just existing. If I didn’t do something 100%, there was something inherently wrong with me.
Now, I won’t sit here and psychoanalyze myself, but feeling bad about myself was never fun. And it led to an even more un-fun situation: pure avoidance.
Writing projects, new hobbies, even friendships were too dangerous to touch. One potential misstep was enough to send me into a spiral and a period of isolation. For much of my life, it felt like there was no escape.
Then, pure irony entered my life. Because, of course, what had to be the thing that managed to crack that shell of perfectionism?
Being critiqued by one of the toughest creative writing professors in my university.
He’s one of those professors where, generally, nothing you submit will be absolutely perfect. There are always places to improve and grammar mistakes to be fixed.
Some people loathed this level of scrutiny on their work, but for me, it was freeing.
My professor would say that even if it’s not perfect, scoring an 85 or better (on a scale out of 100) was a good start.
So, if I got an 85 or better? Maybe a little mistake didn’t mean my writing was completely terrible, after all.
And, even when I had a story that just didn’t quite work or a day where I couldn’t remember grammar for the life of me, my professor didn’t pull some Gordon Ramsey and call me an idiot sandwich. Instead, he still treated me like I was a capable person.
It wasn’t a complete cure of my perfectionism, obviously. Even writing this blog post was difficult, as I didn’t finish it exactly “on time.” But, being able to get criticism by someone who I could trust to not overstep has allowed me to make strides against my perfectionism.
So, while it’s daunting, find someone who can teach you that one mistake will not lead to the end of the world. Even just one step could take you a long way.
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