How To Escape Perfectionism And Publish More

Get all your “garbage” content out.

Whenever I write a blog post, I get stuck halfway through and think, “Oh, this was not such a good idea to write about.” I needed real data and credibility, or else my blog post was simply trash. I wanted to be a good writer, which meant I had to hold my publishing to a higher standard of judgment. But that also meant that I was never publishing blog posts because nothing was ever good enough.

Ever since learning more about the inner workings of Medium and the so-called Medium “best” practices, I have been trying to do things that I currently cannot accomplish yet.

When people say that you have to write the best content and give advice such as backing up your claims with statistics, interviews with credible people, and personal experiments.

But the worst advice is when someone tells you to write something unique — write a blog post that no one has ever seen before that will blow their mind away. Instead of writing multiple posts giving advice saying writing daily will help you succeed on Medium, you should write about something no one has ever seen before.

There’s a reason I didn’t give a specific example for “something no one has ever seen before.” I have no idea what counts as unique. Even when I write a blog post thinking that it’s unique, I find out that someone else has already written about it.

I wrote a blog post on why you don’t have to wake up early about a day ago and thought it was pretty unique. But then I found three different blog posts with basically the same headline on the same topic by entering the keywords “you don’t have to wake up” in the Medium search bar.

When I have all this knowledge about writing for success and whatnot, I stop writing because nothing is good enough. My sense of perfectionism arises because I want to put out the best content, but it is detrimental to my ability to publish. Ultimately, I never publish, and I never succeed.

But we’re going to change that. This is what I think whenever I see myself running into perfectionism issues.

Good Writers Were Once Bad Writers

While certain people might get better at writing faster than others, nobody is born knowing how to write.

A few months ago, when I was cleaning out my room, I found some of my elementary through middle school notebooks.

The stuff I wrote in grade 1 was unreadable. The things I wrote in grade 9 were readable but did not make any sense at all. I’ve come a long way since then.

I believe I will only get even better as I continue blogging and writing, but this will only happen if I publish my blog posts and see what works.

Additionally, your first ideas are seldom your best ideas. Similarly, the first couple of blog posts I write will never be my best blog posts. Blogging is like mining for gold. After writing a bunch of dirt posts, I’ll eventually write a golden article.

You Can And Will Always Change

I often get bent over while writing thinking that this article is the only post I will write on a particular topic, and I’ll never write about it again because everything will link back to this specific post.

For example, if I write a post on writing tips, I often think that this is the only post on writing tips I will write. Consequently, I think to myself, “This article has to be perfect.”

Unfortunately, it will never be perfect. I’m only decreasing my chances of success by stopping myself from revising and writing more.

Over time, people change. As you go through life, you gain new experiences and new perspectives, which means there might be more to what you once thought.

For example, I wrote a post about how I stopped publishing as often after taking a Medium course.

In that post, I talked about how I needed to write better. My perspective has changed since then, so I wrote a new blog post talking about what changed.

Even though I don’t necessarily have the credentials or statistics to back me up currently, my perspectives may have changed entirely by the time I get them, and I don’t have anything to write about anymore. I might as well get something out now and correct myself in the future if I need to.

I’m Here To Improve, Not To Be The Best

Throughout my high school years, I had an infatuation with being the best. I wanted to be number one. The desire came from my middle school years when I was the best. I was excelling in almost everything, and that felt good.

But what I realize now is that wanting to be the best will not make you number one. The people who sit at the top don’t strive to be the best but rather to be better.

To be the best, it means you make the least mistakes. To focus on being the best, you’re focusing on preventing errors. And in the context of writing, the only way to make zero mistakes is not to write at all.

On the other hand, focusing on being better means focusing on improving from your mistakes. In the end, escaping perfectionism all sums up to escaping the perspective of being the best and concentrate on being better. It’s not about what you can do, but what you will be able to do.