24 words from Hemingway on perfectionism
Easy Read
I’m a perfectionist and there’s something I’ve noticed about myself …
I find hard it to get things done.
I work on projects, deliberating over tiny details, concealing everything from everyone because, in my mind, “it wasn’t finished.”
Really want I mean is … “it wasn't perfect.”
Turns out that’s a pretty dangerous game to play.
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I overthink, even abandon projects because they could never live up to what I envisioned. Perfection wasn’t achieved and so these projects never saw the light of day.
I then beat myself up because I didn’t follow through.
All of those intentions, planning, exciting endeavours, visions of progress … without a single result.
That’s were perfectionism was leading me.
Feeling like the laziest screw-up ever.
Then I read these 24 words from Hemingway …
“Benny’s an awfully smart boxer” Jack said. “All the time he’s in there, he’s thinking. All the time he’s thinking, I was hitting him”.
This was the original opening for his short story Fifty Grand.
I read it over and over then something hit me like a fist.
Benny was a perfectionist. Watching, waiting, planning for his moment to strike but never actually making a move.
At the same time he was being pummelled by Jack who was there to win, to act, to fight.
Benny was locked in mortal combat with thinking rather than doing.
Frozen by the need to be flawless. By the need to be perfect in his performance.
That’s what perfectionism will do to you. Freeze you from progress and growth.
I learned that the day I read those 24 words.
Like Benny, I was spending hours sifting over my work, making tweaks, pursuing perfection.
But while I was thinking about what would sound better, editing, re-writing, keeping everything secret …
… everyone else was out there landing punches. Landing knockouts.
Perfectionism is something inside you that’s hard to explain.
Even harder to overcome.
But next time it creeps up why not try being more like Jack and less like Benny?
Throw some jabs, a few hooks and see what lands.
You might see a lot more progress. Be a lot more fulfilled with your work.
