Perfectionism is Self-Abuse
I heard this quote for the first time today, and I think it’s really revealing. Many perfectionists grew up with highly critical caretakers and teachers who pointed out every little flaw in everything we did. We internalized that perfectionism, and through fear of screwing up and fear of further criticism, we end up procrastinating and not wanting to take on new projects. Perfectionism turns into procrastination and underachievement, and just basically not allowing ourselves to do things we would otherwise enjoy.
I think the best antidote for perfectionism I’ve ever seen is this story, from the book Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland:
The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.
His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot – albeit a perfect one – to get an “A”.
Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.
When I remind myself is that beginners are always going to be bad at a thing at first. Nobody cares if your practice pots are shit. Just keep making practice pots! The more shitty practice pots you can churn out, the better your pots will become. Don’t be afraid to use up your art supplies and buy more making “subpar” practice examples! Just keep at it!
