“P” is for Perfectionism

This is the 16th post in the Blogging A to Z Challenge

I’m a big time perfectionist. That goes hand in hand with procrastination. I’ll have an idea in my mind of something I want to do, create, or accomplish, and I’ll see the finished result clearly. Then when I set out to actually make the idea reality, it’s never as good as what I imagine it to be, at least not as first. I often run out of patience and abandon it before it really gets going, if I even get started at all. Or I might put off starting it, since it won’t be “perfect” to begin with. That’s been the biggest reason I abandoned my blog for so many years. I wanted every entry to be a perfectly thought piece of writing. Thought-provoking, full of amazing insights that make you go OMG. Impeccable grammar. Superb writing style. Witty. Intelligent. Smart. Humorous. With equally perfect photos to match. Well most days I’m too tired to produce something like that, so I would be like, nah. I’ll write something on the weekend when I have more energy. The weekend comes, and all I want to do is take a walk in the city instead of sit on the computer all day. So yep, the posts never happen.

This A-to Z blogging challenge, along with my 365 photos project have both been a great way to break out of this. Posting entries and photos daily has lifted the pressure to create something perfect every time. There will be another post or photo tomorrow. Also earlier this year I changed the tagline of this blog to “imperfect, unpolished” as a reminder to myself that this blog doesn’t need to be perfect. Even if what I write is mundane and boring, even if my photos are boring, I will still put them up on this blog. Wanting this thing to be perfect created a huge blockage and robbed me of the chance to even get the juices flowing to one day create something amazing.