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Transcript

It’s a Trap! · The Daily Writer

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider, where we share a lesson each day to help you cultivate the habits for creative success.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a Star Wars fan, you'll recall Admiral Akbar from Return of the Jedi.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: At the Battle of Endor, he is fighting alongside the rebels against the evil empire.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: As they're making a run towards the second Death Star, Lando Calrician suddenly realizes that the force field around it is still active.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: They've been set up.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: He tells his comrades to pull up, and then Admiral Akbar says those three famous words, it's a trap.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now this is not just one of the most quotable lines in Star Wars, it's also a statement about the way that we let perfectionism take us down.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: The writer Elizabeth Gilbert once said, it starts by forgetting about perfect.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have time for perfect.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: In any event, perfection is unachievable.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's a myth and a trap and a hamster wheel that will run you to death.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: As writers, we often talk about perfectionism as something to avoid because it keeps us from doing our work.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: But Gilbert reminds us about another reason we should avoid perfectionism.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have the time.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say there's a book you want to write, but you're struggling with perfectionism.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you keep tweaking it and fiddling around with it for years on end.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, after seven or eight years, you write that book and then you publish it.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: But what would have happened if you had suppressed that perfectionism?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: What would have happened if you had told perfectionism to bug off and just what would have happened if you had told perfectionism to just bug off and you wrote the book anyway?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: What if you had written that book in just two years?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And what if you had followed up that book with other books every two years?
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of giving you one great book in seven years, perfectionism actually robbed you of at least two more books in the same amount of time.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: As they say, ain't nobody got time for that.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Life is short and we won't be around forever.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So make today and make this year count toward the writing that you know can impact someone's life.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Be on your guard against perfectionism.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's a trap.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, you enjoyed my Star Wars references.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: For more, you can visit us at dailywriterlife.com.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much, and I'll see you tomorrow.