What if I Told You Perfection Was Impossible

Let's all get out of our own way today.

Note: If you’re a paid subscriber, I’ll be hanging out on the monthly chat Wednesday night from 6-8 CST. If you have any questions or want to tell me about how your project is going or just want to say hi, please stop by.

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Hi friends.

I have some quick Sunday morning thoughts here about a question I was asked during my workshop at Tulane last week. (By the way, if you want to bring me to your organization to talk about creativity, writing, productivity, inspiration or whatever, hit me up!)

This poised, stylish woman raised her hand and wondered how one might get past the need to fix every imperfect sentence before finishing their project. She said she highlighted every sentence she felt was wrong or bad with the intention of going back and fixing it later, but “later” often turned out to be “sooner” and she was having a hard time getting anywhere with her work. In fact, it was preventing her from crossing the finish line on her book.

A perennial question, this. How do we get past the need for perfection in our work so we can just finish the damn thing in the first place?