I have a graveyard of unfinished (read: unstarted) projects in my house. Boxes of suspiciously idle juggling balls, expensive but untouched crayons, a lonely soldering iron. And don’t get me started on all the intriguing software I’ve bought and lost on my harddrive.
One time, fired up by the creative world of animation, I wanted to try my hand at making a short animation movie with clay figures.
At some point, as if in a fever dream, I found myself sitting on the floor hunched over my laptop at 3 am in the morning. Sleepy red eyes. Researching the chemical components of different types of clay I could use.
Spoiler alert. I never made the animation.
Abraham and me
I’m a recovering perfectionist. Recovering because I no longer believe that striving for perfection is serving me. I did once though. I wore it like a badge of honor.
I used to love this quote:
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” ― Abraham Lincoln
Oehh, I relished it. Reveled in it. Yes, I thought.This is me. Of course you want to sharpen before you chop. Never rush into any project ever. Think, research, think again. That was my mantra.
This left me with a lot of sharpened axes standing in the corner of my room. And no firewood.
Every project started with a hyper-interested phase of researching every little detail to death, slowing the momentum of the original fire down to a halt. Every. Single. Time.
Especially gear-related fields are likely to pique a perfectionist’s interest. Because there’s so much to research (and buy) before you can actually start. Like amateur photographers endlessly discussing lenses they could never afford instead of going out and snapping a pic with their phone.
Where regular folk can ‘geek out’ and ‘be obsessed’ all they want, having ordinary fascinations can be dangerous for recovering perfectionists.
And it doesn’t have to be gear-related. For example editing this article, I could go on for days, weeks, even years before hitting publish.
Check your aim
So what if I enjoy researching the crap out of things. Enjoying a deep dive doesn’t mean that I have a problem. Let me indulge my rabbit holes.
It’s worth double checking though.
It can be as simple as asking myself: ‘Do I still want to chop down this tree? Am I aiming at something here?’
Usually, asking the question is enough to realize what I’m doing. I snap out of the fever dream, if there is one. I either take action or continue enjoying myself guilt-free.
Recently I got into note-taking software. For those unfamiliar, the note-taking world can be a bit cultish and it’s an ideal place for a perfectionist to get lost in the weeds.
Luckily I remembered to ask myself why I was getting the app. After years of untraceable scribbles I didn’t want to lose my notes anymore. So I refrained from diving into all the deliciously attractive youtube tutorials on how to get the most out of the app and just started using it.
Epic win!
If you can relate and you’re recovering too, please stop reading this.
And I’ll stop editing.