A short talk by Julie Broad warning authors against perfectionism when publishing. She cites Brene Brown’s definition from Dare to Lead, describes perfectionism as a shield that prevents authors from progressing, and advises recognizing when changes are genuine improvements versus fear-driven delays.
Chapters
Mistake number one Perfectionism. I was driving home from the gym listening to Dare to Lead by Brene Brown when she said this of perfectionism. If I look perfect, live perfect, work perfect, I can avoid or minimize criticism and blame. All perfectionism is is the 20 ton shield we carry around hoping it'll keep us from being hurt, while in truth it keeps us from being seen. I pulled over, hit rewind, listened to it again, and wrote it down. Because we know the pursuit of perfection is an impossible journey. And we can see that some authors do it out of fear of judgment or fear failure or one of the other beloved monsters we've talked about so many times here. Every little detail has to be just right before they will authorize the book to move to the next stage. This means the book takes two or three, sometimes even four times as long as it should. The reality is that your book is never going to be perfect, and the more you mess with it, the more opportunities you have to introduce errors. It's really important to know when you're actually improving the work or you're just scared to move it forward.
