I was running some errands today. As I started my car, it was tuned to WBEZ, the local National Public Radio Station. There was a lady speaking with a host. What show was it? Who was the host and the guest, I had no clue. I did surmise that the lady was an author, and she was speaking about the large number of years between the publication of her first book and her second, which I guessed was recently published. The author attributed the long gap to two of her personality traits: “procrastination and perfectionism.”
Well, any reader of this blog knows that I can relate to procrastination. I have written about this topic often.
- Procrastination or JIT?
- On Writing about Nothing and Procrastinating About It
- Procrastination Revisited
I wish this was bloggy bit was to report that I have found a magic formula or secret way of conquering procrastination. Sadly, that is not the case. It is still something I deal with on a constant basis though it does ebb and flow.
As author on the radio was talking about the large number of years between her first and second book, my thoughts drifted to how I have always wanted to write a book, but as yet, have not. I have the body of writing in this blog. I have a lot of poetry, Mark Gavoor’s Poetry, which I have subdivided into four “books” by name only. Beyond, the desire, I have done practically nothing about publishing any of these. I have looked into self-publishing but have not acted mostly because the templates don’t seem intuitive, and I am too cheap to pay for any of the third party options. We can attribute this to procrastination for sure.
The author on the radio also confessed to being a perfectionist as a reason for her delayed second book. Well, thankfully, I cannot claim that as an affliction in vocation or any of my avocations. While I strive for perfection, I have no issues with posting and submitting writing that is not perfect. I will perform songs or musical offerings that I know aren’t perfect. I know sometimes that they are kind of good, but there are other times, well, I am OK with good enough.
So, what am I if I am not a perfectionist? A perfectionist is a very exact trait. It is not allowing or being comfortable anything less than flawless and the absolute best. What is the opposite of being a perfectionist? I googled “antonym of perfectionist” and got unsatisfactory, less than perfect, results. The words given were flexible, imperfect, inaccurate, and many others that didn’t fit the bill for me. Maybe imperfectionist would work or perhaps mediocratist (a follower of Mediocrates). But, neither of these words work for me. I am not striving for mediocrity or for just good enough, though sometimes, good enough is indeed good enough. I do try to do my best and and try to improve, over time, on what my best is.
There is certainly a relationship between procrastination and perfectionism. I agonized about starting my e-letter in February of 2004. I wanted whatever I wrote to be perfect. Perfectionism, and of course procrastination, was probably the reason I didn’t write more for public consumption before that. Basically, I just decided to not worry about it and do the best I could which has been my approach to music performance since my first public gig.
I publish bloggy bits with spelling errors, usually homonyms, bad grammar, or awkard syntax. Sometimes, my writing is muddled and not precise enough. Most of this is attributable to one thing: I am a horrible proofreader of my own writing (The Proofreading Conundrum). Yesterday, my wife pointed out that there were a number of errors in my piece on my departed friend Gianfranco. I read it again and fixed several errors. I should probably read it again and will probably find more errors. Moving forward, maybe I should wait and proofread the piece the next day and then post it. If I ever win the lottery, I think I would rather hire an editor and assistant before buying an extravagant car, boat, or house.
Lastly, I did make a resolution to try to overcome my procrastination via continuous improvement (dang I teach this afterall). Given a short month, I am encouraged but a long way off from where I want to be.
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