#177: Who are my perfectionists? This message is for you.

Welcome to the Author Audience show, the podcast that helps you reach more people with your message. Create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelly Hitz. If you're a perfectionist, say me in the comments below, because this message is for you. Hi, my name is Shelly Hitz. I'm an author coach and the owner of authoraudienceacademy.com and and trainingauthors.com and I'm on a mission to help you reach more people with your message. It's time to let your light shine. And in today's quick video, I just wanted to share something with you on perfectionism. As an author coach, I have seen the biggest obstacles people face are their obstacles in their mind. Mindset issues, fear, self doubt, perfectionism. The list goes on and on and on. And so one of the things, one of the biggest obstacles I facing writers is perfectionism. Perfectionism is an unending, debilitating loop that gets lost in the details and loses sight of the big picture. I love the way Julia Cameron says this. So Julia Cameron says, perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It's a pursuit of the worst in ourselves. The part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough, that we should try again. Did you catch that? She said, it's not a quest for the best. So many writers will come to me and say, but Shelley, I want my book to be the best it can be. And yes, I want your book to be the very best it can be too. But what I found in working closely with authors is that many times, practice, perfectionists want to create a finished, final, perfected, polished draft the first time. And I want to remind you, your first draft is never your final draft. Your first draft is just the beginning. And any author will tell you that their first draft was probably not that great. You know, it takes a lot of self editing and then we hire professional editors to help us. But I want you to hear this. Perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It's a pursuit of the worst in ourselves.

It says we are not good enough. We should try again. What that is, perfectionism is another voice for shame. Shame says I'm not good enough. I shouldn't try. I shouldn't even. Why am I even doing this writing thing? Why am I even trying to write a book? Who am I to. I'm fooling myself. Who am I? Who am I? What am I doing? I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not a writer. Have you ever said Any of those things to yourself before. If so, just type yes in the comments below. I hear it all the time from writers or, you know, those. The aspiring writers. And basically, the enemy wants to stop us. There is going to be resistance when we write. And one of the things that wants to stop us is that perfectionism, that we have to have that perfect first draft or that we have to have a perfect book. And you know what? There are New York Times best sellers that I still find little mistakes in this side of Heaven. It's not going to be possible to have a 100% perfect book. Yes. Do the very best you can. And I teach you those steps in Author Audience Academy. And I share the steps to create a book that you can be proud of in Author Audience Academy. I share that with you and all of the different steps that it's going to take. It's not possible.

To have 100% perfectionism, but it is possible to overcome perfectionism. And I see it almost like flipping a switch. You know, God showed me a picture one time. He's like, shelly, it's like you're in this dark room, and you're just like. You feel like you're all alone. You're all by yourself. You don't know what you're doing. It's like, oh, I have to do it. It's up to me. That pressure. Have you ever felt the pressure? It's up to me. And God was just showing me. He's like, shelly, all you have to do is flip the switch, the light switch, and see I am there in the room with you. And he was showing me, Shelly, it's my war room. Basically, when someone's in a battle, in a war, there's a war room. And that he has the resources I need. He has the strategies I need. He has everything that we need if we'll just ask him. So when you're stuck, if you're a follower of Christ, all you need to do is flip that switch. He is with you. And this is a battle. There is a very real enemy that wants to stop you. He wants to stop you from writing. He wants to stop you from sharing your voice. He wants to stop you from sharing your message, whether it's Facebook Live. How many of you have ever wanted to go live on Facebook? But then you're like, you know, you feel that nervousness. You're like, no. Or it's just not the right time, or the lighting's not right, or this isn't right. And so you don't do it. Has Anyone ever done that? How many of you have unfinished manuscripts on your hard drive right now that you've gotten stuck? You stopped and you said, I don't know what to do. How many of you have unfinished manuscripts on your computer right now? You never clicked that publish button. You never allowed to that message to be shared with the world. God gave me a powerful picture yesterday of just a sea of faces, all different colors and nations, waiting for the books that you will publish, waiting for the message that you will share in your books. And that he's using me to give birth to those books through Author Audience Academy, through the trainings that I do. And he's using you to share your voice, to share your message. There is someone waiting for your message. And it's not a message of guilt. It's a message of freedom. I was speaking to an artist and a creative last weekend. I was at a Mastermind, and I told her I was like, the picture that God just gave me of her, she's so talented, so gifted. Is like, she's been in this box, trying to fit into this box. And I said, I just see a picture of you, like, expanding, expanding into all that God has created you to be, into all the gifts he's given you. So what if each one of us would just let go, push the sides of the box away, get rid of the box and say, I'm going to expand into all that God has for me. I'm not going to hold back anymore. I am going to move forward. And. And one of the steps to doing that is flipping the switch, having that mindset change on perfectionism, because it's not a quest for the best. It's actually a pursuit of the worst. And it's actually another voice of shame, and it's the enemy trying to stop you. So I want you to get unstuck. I want you to share your voice. I want you to share your message. I want you to get to that place where you have a book you're proud of, and you click the publish button. And yeah, if that excites you, just give me a praise emoji or say, yes, that excites me in the comments. Sometime in the next couple weeks, I'm going to be sharing the keynote message I gave at Writers on the Rock called Right Now. I'm going to be sharing that here on my Facebook page live for you all, because I really believe it's a message that so many of you need to hear. I'm still scheduling it and figuring out the dates and all of that, but I will let you know soon, soon when that will be. Can't wait to share that entire message with you. But for now, I just want to pray over you and those of you that are dealing with perfectionism. So, God, I just thank you so much right now for every writer, for every author, for every creative that's listening right now or watching the replay. I thank you for their life. I thank you for the gifts that you have given to them. I thank you for the uniqueness of their story, their voice, their message, what they have to share with the world. And I just pray right now, God, that you would remove any obstacles related to perfectionism. In Jesus name, I pray that just like extra strength Drano, you would apply that on any blockages, anything that's stopping them right now, in Jesus name, and that they would feel that creative flow once again, that they would begin writing on a consistent basis once again, that they would get out those unfinished manuscripts and finish the work, finish the book, finish what you have called them to finish. And I pray that you would give them wisdom. What is it that they're to finish and what is it they're not to finish? Some of those manuscripts are not meant to be finished. But Lord, give them wisdom. And if you've called them to create this book, to finish this book, Lord, I pray that you would help them to do this work. You would empower them. It would be in your strength. When we are weak, you are strong. And so I just pray right now for the light switch to come on for so many people right now that they would see that they're not alone, that you are with them, that you are in the room right now. You have all the resources, you have the strategies, you have the maps, you have everything that they need to finish writing this book. And I just pray that you would empower them to do that. In Jesus name, amen. All right. Thank you so much for being here. I would love to hear any aha moments, any takeaways from this and I would also love to hear where are you stuck? What else? You know, where else are you stuck today? How can I help you? I want to start doing these live trainings more often. They also will be on my podcast, but I want to start doing things like this more often and I want to know what's going to help you. Where are you stuck? What do you need? What do you want to hear more about? Do you like these kind of Facebook Live messages? Do you like these kind of trainings or what kind of trainings do you want from me. Well, I'm so glad that you tuned in today and I will see you next time. And thank you so much for being here and I cannot wait to see what God does in and through your life. Bye Bye. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Author Audience. I would like to invite you to attend one of my free trainings on three proven book writing formulas every nonfiction author needs to know. This is a fun and fast way to write a nonfiction book, but also a book that you're proud of. Plus, I will give you two free gifts just for attending. No credit card required. First, you'll get my 10 nonfiction book title templates and you'll also get my ebook titled Brilliant brainstorming. It's a 28 page ebook and both of these bonuses are yours at no charge. Just for joining us for the training, you can sign up for my free training by going to shellyhits.com formulas. This training and the two bonuses are free and I would love to help you write your next nonfiction book.