Hi friends,

Recently I committed to posting on TikTok at least once a day in order to learn more about the (somewhat foreign for me) entity that is the public side of the internet, and to hopefully one day be able to reap its rumored rewards. It's been quite the learning experience - putting myself out there to basically crickets, acknowledging my contribution to the cringe and trying to balance my ego's desire to be understood. I both want to hide under the covers and to go mega viral. It is strange.

All this to say that I have been posting a series of daily self-love prompts this week, and day 3 this week was about Letting Go of Perfection. The prompt was simple enough - "Where in your life are you holding out for perfection? What would it feel like to put yourself out there, imperfections and all?"

As I saw with it, I started to see some of the ways I've let perfectionism hold me back. For me, I've used it as an excuse not to move forward. I'll post something and delete it. Record a song and never share it. Write something and let no one read it. Instead of a colorful portfolio, I have a graveyard of abandoned projects.

Perfectionism - and fear of being seen - have kept me from improving and learning the next essential step: receiving feedback. But lately, especially with this commitment to posting, I have been moving through it, and feeling proud of myself.

In my post, I recalled an article I read about a one month study where a beginner's pottery class was split into to two groups. One group was tasked to make as many pots as possible, the quality did not matter, just the quantity. The other group was tasked to create the perfect pot, just one, and had a month to work on it. After the month was finished, the quality of the pots made by the group graded on quantity far surpassed those tasked to create the perfect pot. Because in the repetition of learning, doing, is where improvement lies. The irony is not lost on me that I recorded that particular video 35 times before I posted it.

But here's the takeaway:
​Do, Tell, Show.
Remember that everything is editable and a non-perfect published thing is better than nothing.

Love you,

Christen

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