Perfectionism: The Deadliest Creative Block
By: Charlotte Allison
Tags: Mindset Shift, Mindset, Creative Process, Perfectionism, Creativity

One simple strategy can help you bypass the perfectionist mind-set.

Photo by Susan Holt Simpson on Unsplash

Think back to a time when you trusted your own creative experience, rather than let the perfectionist mind-set take over.

We have all had an experience like this. Dig a little deeper if you can’t think of one off the top of your head. You know you have at least one story where you trusted your creative process instead of letting perfectionism rule the day.

Blocks in creativity often start in childhood. And one of the deadliest creative blocks is perfectionism. The perfection mind-set will stop you from even beginning.

How does the perfection mind-set start in the first place? How does it build and get cemented in your psyche?

Sometimes it’s well-meaning parents and other adults that unknowingly block your creativity with ‘sound reasoning’. Reasons such as ‘you can’t earn a living doing that’, and other well-meaning thoughts and phrases. These people care about you and only want the best for you. But at the same time are helping you to build blocks to your creativity.

Other times it’s done purposely by not so well-meaning adults.

When I was in fourth grade, my class and another fourth-grade class got together. We were going to rehearse for a show that our two classes would perform together. They broke us up into two groups. One group would sing first. Then the other group.

When my group was singing, the two teachers kept stopping us and saying that it wasn’t good. They gave us one more chance to sing it ‘right’. And if we didn’t do a good job, the show would be called off and we would have to write the lyrics to the song out ten times. If we didn’t do it, we would receive a lower grade in music.

Our group sang it again and did a great job. The two teachers shook their heads in disapproval, saying that we didn’t do it good. We were dumbfounded to say the least. We knew we did a good job. And even the other group said they couldn’t believe the teachers were doing this, because we did such a good job.

You can’t always be the best judge of your own performance. But it’s just you know when you did a good job.

These teachers proceeded to call off the show because of our ‘bad’ performance. We were told we had to write out the lyrics ten times and hand them in; and if we didn’t complete the assignment, we would receive one grade lower in music on our report cards.

I did not write out the lyrics ten times. I did not care if I got a lower grade or not. Even though I was only about 9 or 10 years old at the time; I knew I had to stand my ground. We had done nothing wrong. What those teachers were doing was wrong. And even at this young age I knew this, and I stood my ground by not doing the ‘punishment assignment’.

I did indeed receive one grade lower in music than I normally would have. But I didn’t care. And luckily, I had parents that didn’t care that much about grades either.

The message somehow gets in.

Even though I stood my ground and trusted my creative process, I subtly got the message that everything had to be 100% perfect to be acceptable. This added to and helped build the perfectionist mind-set. This perfection trap is deadly. It will prevent you from even trying in the first place.

Your creative work does need to be the best you can do. But it does not have to be perfect. How do you know when something is perfect anyway? Everybody’s standard of perfection varies anyhow. Thinking your work needs to be perfect will prevent you from even getting started.

But ironically, this experience was also good because it taught me to always trust my own creative process. I knew we did a good job. And I just trusted that. I trusted what my creative process was, instead of listening to the perfectionist mind-set that those stupid teachers were trying to cement in my mind.

Steps to bypassing the perfectionist mind-set.

When you feel blocked creatively, look within to see what is blocking you from being creative. Are you afraid to even get started? If so, you most likely are stuck in the perfectionist mind-set.

Next time perfectionism rears its ugly head and starts telling you that you can’t start anything unless you know it’s going to be perfect, try this one simple strategy to help you bypass this deadly creative block.

1. Think back to a time when you trusted your own creative experience, as suggested at the beginning of this post. A time when you went ahead with your creativity despite what was going on around you or what kind of critical messages were trying to hold you back.

2. Let this experience be your anchor. When perfectionism is holding you back, think back to that time when you bypassed everything that was trying to hold you back. Know what was happening at that time that allowed you to move forward with your creativity.

3. Trust your creative process. It does not have to be perfect. You just need to keep working at it consistently. You know you are good!