I updated last week’s post, so it would have the same units of measure that were on Mike’s handwritten recipe. As I have looked at past posts I’ve seen other mistakes. I was going to go back and make corrections but have never made the time to do it.
This is when perfectionism shows its evil ways. I will see a mistake after I’ve published something and will beat myself up over it. Sometimes, like in a blog, it’s easy to make a correction. Others like on the printed page, it’s not.
I often look at other people’s writing and I’m critical of the mistakes. I’m guessing that most of them are, like mine, innocent typos that the spell/grammar checker didn’t pick up.
A composite of three photos that I made when I was first learning PhotoShop.
What I’ve read about writing content is that you should take about a week on each post. I’m lucky if mine get a few hours and some of that time is spent on finding/editing pictures, finding the right song and video, and creating the page in WordPress.
Several years ago, I was designing a logo for someone and my client came to me and said she needed something to take to her client. The design wasn’t ready yet. She said to give her what I had, and she would see where it needed work. Low and behold her client thought it was perfect and didn’t want any changes.
My point is my perfectionism had reared its ugly head but for the client the design was perfect. We never know what someone else’s perfect is.
I also have to remember this when I’m editing photos. When I first started editing photos I spent all of a long July 4th weekend editing a photo. Granted I was slow at that time and there was a lot of selection work as the completed project was a compilation of three different photographs that I had taken. It’s still one of my favorite projects but I haven’t sold enough prints to justify my time creating it, so I’ll just chalk that one up to learning.
A photo composite of a sunset and the Buffalo Bill Statue in Oakley, KS.
When I was going through my Equine Gestalt Coaching Method® training we talk about perfectionism a lot. Were do those voices in our heads that tell us that we’re not good enough come from? So, we often do what Melisa calls Trollectomies to get that troll who’s whispering in our ear off our shoulder. I’ve seen several of these. While I was helping with one for someone else I suddenly had a flash of insight into where my troll had come from. That in itself helps to keep my “I’m not educated enough” troll at bay.
While I still struggle with perfectionism I will not be going back and editing those previous posts I also won’t go back and make all the posts look the same graphically because I’ve updated the way I do them. My perfectionism tells me to do it, but my heart says to let my growth and vulnerabilities show.
Read more of my thoughts on perfectionism here: Nothing Human Is Perfect.
When perfectionism starts to rear its ugly head just Shake It Off.
Onward! Cross Country
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