Latest / The Daily Writer / Bring Your ‘B’ Game

Transcript

Bring Your ‘B’ Game · The Daily Writer

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Writer, where we share a lesson each day to help you cultivate the habits for creative success.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Do you struggle with being a perfectionist?
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: If so, here's a strategy that can help you overcome it immediately.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: But first, before we get into the strategy, let's ask the question: what is perfectionism anyway?
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Perfectionism is the tendency to get paralyzed by the idea that your work is never good enough.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Perfectionists imagine that there's a standard out there somewhere, but they can never reach it.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: They've convinced themselves that they're going to be an utter failure unless they reach that unreachable standard.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, a perfectionist never takes action and instead lives in a perpetual state of frustration and confusion.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about the strategy for dealing with this.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you think of yourself as a perfectionist, you're always shooting for A-level work.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is that your definition of an A is so far above everybody else's that it's totally unreachable.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: So the key here is to downgrade your standards a bit so that you're shooting for B-level work, maybe a B plus at best.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as a perfectionist, you're naturally going to think of this as lowering your standards, but remember that your standards are so unrealistically elevated that your B is everybody else's A.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: So make it your goal to do B level writing.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us don't have the capacity to be objective about our work anyway, so you have to trust that your B is truly an A in everybody else's eyes.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, after all, if we were all so objective, we wouldn't be perfectionists.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: So the point here is that whenever you shoot for a B, you can get work done a lot more quickly, you can move on, and you can still be considered excellent in everybody else's eyes.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're perfectionist, I know it's going to be hard to try out this, but just give it a shot and let me know how it goes.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been listening to this show for any length of time, you know that one of the four practices of a great writer is creativity.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And in order to stay creative, you've got to have great input.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where writing prompts come in.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: A writing prompt is a sentence or two that helps you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Writing prompts are an awesome creative tool for journaling, storytelling, creative writing, stress relief, social media posts, and so much more.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: But the great news is that you don't have to create these yourself.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: We've put together an amazing package of 365 daily writing prompts.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: So every day for the next year, you can have a shot of inspiration delivered straight to your inbox.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: You can check it out at dailywriterlife.comslash writing prompts.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.