Mastery: A Two-Step Approach To Overcoming Protectionism

Issue No. 20 | May 15th, 2023 | Read Time: 3 Minutes

Happy Monday Everyone!

As someone who's struggled with perfectionism, I can say it's not a trait you want to have.

It's a type of mentality that hinders growth, sets unrealistic expectations, and makes you lose time stressing over every little detail. It all comes down to the constant pursuit of being perfect.

All of us want to be perfect in some way or another, and for some of us, we try to prove that through the work we put out into the world. 

Whether you're a writer, photographer, editor, or video creator, you might always be looking for ways to make your work better than it was yesterday. Eventually, this just turns into an endless cycle.

It can be a difficult habit to overcome, but I've found two methods that have helped me keep it under control that I'd like to share with those who might be experiencing the same problem.

Approach #1: Stick To A Schedule

One of the best things you can do to help overcome perfectionism is to create a schedule.

As perfectionists, we have this belief we have all the time in the world to make something better, when in all actuality, we have very little. 

Your goal as a creator is to

create

something, put it out

into

the world, and

move on

to your next idea. Life is too short to hinder on one idea. 

By creating a schedule of when to release your work, it forces you to abide by the rules regardless of your how good or bad you think your project is. 

So if you're an aspiring writer, make a schedule that forces you to publish an article every Monday and Thursday morning at 9:00AM. Even if there's obvious flaws in your writing and you know you could do better, hit publish anyways and take those lessons and apply it to your future articles. 

It's those previous mistakes that leads us to make more quality work in the future. So don't look at uncompleted or flawed work as imperfect, but look at it as your effort to achieve more quality work over time.

Approach #2: Change Your Mindset

Being a perfectionist can be damaging to your mental health. It makes you think about how other people look at us so we're always striving to radiate perfection so we can't possibly be put down.

But what you have to realize is that there's no such thing as a perfect human being. Even the most successful writers, entrepreneurs, video creators, and editors talk about how much they despised their early work.

But they recognized that it's our flaws that make us human, not our constant strive to be perfect.

So change your mindset and start learning to love making mistakes. Because if you're making mistakes, it means you're moving forward.

As Albert Einstein said —

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."

So don't strive for perfectionism, strive to always be putting out new content despite making mistakes so you're always experiencing organic growth.

And you never know, there might be moments where you believe your work isn't worthy of being put out into the world, but usually it's those pieces that are the most life-changing to someone else.

Don't worry about what you can do to make your work better now, but start focusing on how to make your work better in the long run. Because if we could all be perfect in the present moment, then what's the point of the journey?

Until next time,

Isaiah Taylor

Dive Deeper

What I'm Currently Reading -

I'm currently reading

The Third Door

by Alex Banayan, a book on a college students journey to interview some of the worlds most influential people in an effort to share how they rose to the top.

• If you'd like to see my notes pertaining to any of the other book I have previously read, then check out my websiteisaiahctaylor.comto view my entire library of notes and summaries.

Quote Of The Week

• "You have to be odd to be number one." — Dr. Seuss