Among the challenges that people tend to face with their creative work, perfectionism is one of the most common. As radio host Ira Glass explained in this video, most people are drawn to creative work because they have excellent taste. Not being able to create work that matches that taste (yet) can be deeply frustrating, even without the addition of perfectionism. Add a dose of perfectionism into the mix, however, and it affect your ability to show up consistently, not to mention enjoy your creative practice. Perfectionism is a huge topic, but in this post I’m going to share a little more about how it can show up and a couple of ways you can deal with it in the context of your creative work.
Perfectionism involves holding ourselves to (often unrealistically or unattainably) high standards. But whereas traits like confidence, a desire for growth, and healthy ambition have a positive driving force behind them, the foundations of perfectionism are often built on self-criticism and a fear of failure. Perfectionism can drive us to be high achieving, detail orientated, and constantly improving, but it is also highly likely to lead to procrastination (partly because, on some level, we understand that what we are aiming for doesn’t exist). It can make us rigid, reluctant to take risks that might lead to new opportunities, and controlling. And, of course, it can lead to a whole host of physical and mental health issues brought on by stress, none of which are conducive to creativity.
Sometimes, perfectionism is obvious, but sometimes it manifests in more subtle ways that are harder to recognise in ourselves. Here are some of the ways perfectionism can show up in our creative work. Do any of these resonate for you? (N.B. some of these will happen from time to time. What you want to notice is a pattern of behaviour or thinking that affects most or all of your work).
- Setting impossibly high standards for ourselves
- Setting impossibly high standards for peers or collaborators (and damaging relationships with them in the process)
- Feeling our worth is determined by our work and that imperfections in our work will lead to personal criticism and rejection.
- A hyper focus on the outcome of our work and what people will think of it, to the point where we are afraid to try something new or take a risk
- A hyper focus on the details of our work at the expense of meeting deadlines or finishing the overall project
- Difficulty making decisions in relation to our creative work because we fear we will make the wrong choice
- Stopping ourselves before we’ve even started because the concept or idea doesn’t feel “good enough”
- Using “When… then…” thinking (e.g. “When I have the perfect website, then I’ll start sharing my work.”) or waiting until conditions are just right to take the next step
Ultimately, perfection offers the illusion of safety. If we can just get it all right, we’ll be safe from (criticism/self-doubt/rejection/instability/insert experience here). In reality, you probably will be embarrassed by earlier versions of your work. That’s good! It shows you’ve grown and improved. But that growth and improvement is hard to come by in isolation; we need to go through the act of making, iterating, and sharing again and again in order for our work to evolve.
I want to emphasise that perfectionism isn’t the same as wanting to create good work. Wanting to create good work is, well, good. Wanting to improve is great. Wanting to create the best thing you can create right now is an excellent goal to have. What you might notice about the statements above, though, is that they involve pursuing excellence at the expense of other things: wellbeing, relationships, deadlines, finishing a project, mental and physical health, even getting started in the first place. High standards raise us up, perfectionism holds us back.
How to deal with perfectionism in your creative work
Perfectionism is a huge and complex topic that we each have experience differently, so covering the different nuances in a single blog post is impossible. If you notice perfectionism affecting your creative work, however, a useful place to start is by focusing on self-compassion and being kinder to yourself. Part of this involves noticing and reframing perfectionist thoughts when they come up.
For example, you might notice that you are comparing yourself to someone you follow online who does similar creative work and notice that you feel you can’t compete. Your work is so mediocre in comparison, an internal voice chimes in, what’s the point? You’ll never be that good. One way of reframing this way of thinking might be acknowledging that everyone starts somewhere; the more you practice, the better you will become. You might also remind yourself that everyone develops at their own pace and has their own style. What makes your work unique is that it comes from you, not from this other person. You might also take a moment to refocus on the things you like about your way of working, your small strengths, and how far you’ve come on your creative journey so far.
Another example of how we can be kinder to ourselves in our creative work is setting achievable and realistic goals, especially if you feel under self-imposed pressure to constantly more, achieve more and be more. What happens if you consciously walk it back? How does that feel different?
It also feels important to point out that the process of overcoming perfection doesn’t have to perfect 🙂 Start small, notice where perfectionism crops up in your work, and practice reframing in a way that feels right to you.
Finally, one of the biggest ways to combat perfectionism is to take action. Action doesn’t come from confidence, confidence comes from action. The more experience you have in committing to imperfect creative work and discovering the world doesn’t end, the more you strengthen your courage and resilience to keep going.
Since perfectionism shows up in different ways, here are some questions you can ask yourself about your own creative process:
1) Where do I notice perfectionism showing up in my creative work?
2) What effect does this have on a) my creative process; b) how I feel about my creative process, and c) how I feel about myself?
3) What would “good enough” look like?
Mantras for overcoming perfectionism in your creative work
Here are a few sentences you can use to start reframing perfection-orientated thoughts. Feel free to adapt these to work for you:
- Done is better than perfect
- Progress over perfection
- My creative work does not have to be perfect to make a difference
- I am learning and growing with each project
- I am willing to make bad work so I can make great work
- Mistakes help me learn
- I learn from failing at new things
- I am committed to the process more than the outcome
- Confidence comes from action
- It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be good enough
- I am committed to creating imperfect work
What have you found helpful for addressing perfectionism in your creative work? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Image by Georgi Cobbs
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