Tag Archives: Writing

I tend to be a perfectionist

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I tend to be a perfectionist. I tend to edit everything I do. A lot. Because I want everything to be perfect. I tend to edit what I’m going to say and how I’m going to say it. I’m always editing myself. I’m doing it as I write this. I re-wrote this paragraph and the sentences in this paragraph a few times already.

And it slows me down. And I would justify it by saying, “Quality is important to me.” and “I need to be proud of my work.” Perfectionist. Me. OK. I admit it. I have a problem.

When I was younger, I was taught that “perfection” was a good thing. It’s not.

It slows me down. It stops me from sharing my work. Sharing my art, sharing my music, sharing my words.

Worst of all, it makes me self-critical. It makes me judge everything I do and everything I say. And it makes me feel bad. I’m my worst critic. By far. I’m harder on myself than anyone I know.

So my mantra for today is “good enough.” It’s going to be my mantra moving forward. Because my “good enough” is usually pretty damn good by anyone else’s standards.

Hello world

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I’ve decided to start blogging again. My first attempt on Blogger.com started in 2007 and I wrote sporadically since then. I never took it seriously because I figured no one was reading it.  The truth is that no one was reading it because I was too afraid to share it.

Starting the blog was an experiment in getting myself to start writing publicly about personal things. Before the blog, I had written “publicly” a ton for work, for a couple of magazines and wrote tons of lyrics for other singers to sing.  It was easy for me to share my work when it was more about the facts and less about my opinions.  More about others and less about myself.  As soon as the words got too personal, then it became too scary for me to share.

I’m hoping this time it will be different. I was inspired to write again after reading a blog post titled Talkers Block by Seth Godin:

“Do it every day. Every single day. Not a diary, not fiction, but analysis. Clear, crisp, honest writing about what you see in the world. Or want to see. Or teach (in writing). Tell us how to do something. …If you know you have to write something every single day, even a paragraph, you will improve your writing.” — Seth Godin

So this is my attempt at improving my writing and my attempt at honest writing about what I see in the world. This is my attempt at making my writing more personal.  It still feels scary as hell. Maybe this time I’ll find the courage to share.  Maybe this time I’ll have more readers. Maybe I won’t. Either way, I feel like I have a lot to say. So here goes…