NEW PODCAST! Can you afford to do less than "your best"?
And... what does doing "your best" even mean?
Dear Creators,
Somewhere along the line, did you learn to never settle for less than your best?
I did, and I’m not sure if I learned it through school-hallway posters, peppy children’s media, personal encouragement to realize my “full potential”, or simply the cultural zeitgeist of the early ‘90s — but I’ve definitely internalized it.
In a way, I’m grateful. This mindset has helped me to push myself to learn, grow, and produce high-quality work that has made me a successful adult.
But in other, more subtle ways, it has led to perfectionism, constant self-critique, and a self-conscious, self-protective anxiety that permeates everything I do.
Was that email worded as well as it could have been?
Did I put too little pesto into the pasta I served my in-laws?
Did I smile enough as I thanked the barista for my cappuccino?
Would that chapter (or podcast episode) have been better with just a few more “final tweaks”?
Those last few “final tweaks” are really what hold me back when it comes to writing — and maybe they hold you back, too. Maybe they keep you from publishing at all.
An article sent to me by a friend this week caused me to wonder: at what point do those last “final tweaks” provide diminishing returns? At what point do we have to say our work is “good enough” — and release it?
This is precisely what we’re digging into this week on the Write Now podcast! Let’s dive in. 👇👇👇
(You can also listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or my website!)
What do you think? Do you have a rubric, a point at which your work is “good enough” to release to the world? Or is that something you’re still figuring out? Hit “reply” to this email (or leave a comment) to let me know — I’m eager to hear what you have to say.
Thanks as always for listening, and please stay warm and safe this week. It’s cold out there.
Words & warmth,
Sarah
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Thank you as always for reading, and happy writing. :)
By coincidence, your email popped into my inbox just now as I was making more tweaks/editing/polishing my latest episode. I'd already checked it over thoroughly, sent it off to a colleague to check, received his high approval, slept on it, uploaded it to the host and scheduled it, listened to it on their 'preview' page, spotted a couple of errors, returned to the daw to fix them, run it again, realised the music was now missing in two places, corrected again, listened again, found that one line (one word, actually) that was unclear on, and it was such a lovely gag I couldn't let it pass, so I trawled back through all of his takes till I found one that was clear, inserted it, it was still weird, realised it didn't have the ambience beneath it, fixed that, and was listening to it again while checking my email. No, it's never 'good enough' but eventually I will have to get on with something else. I used to be a proof reader for a publisher in a past life, and some things are never perfect. It's just not possible.