The Pitfalls of Perfectionism

I had been invited to write some content for a fellow practitioner’s website. Monday I sat down and wrote the body of it. Then I set it aside for three days, firstly due to other commitments but also to let it settle. In the past I have perhaps been so keen to tick it off my to-do list that submissions have been flawed.
Returning to this piece of copy today I noticed my other strand had kicked in, my pendulum had swung from impatience to perfectionism instead. This piece of copy I could not let go of….
Having intended to tighten it up and send the piece off into the ether, instead I checked it, tweaked it, printed it, scribbled in it, amended it, printed it, read it out loud, changed more bits, some of them back to whence they came……. And realised I had trapped myself in an endless process. This piece was never gonna be perfect…. And eventually I sent it off hoping it would be good enough. Perhaps even to notice that the piece might have its own beauty because of its flaws?
And I think that is my point ‘good enough’ is sometimes all we need to aim for. Perfectionism is unattainable, even for the best of us, sometimes we just need to know we have done our best and move on to the next task…. 

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