Thank you Liz Gilbert. An expression of gratitude for all the thought parsing and emotional work you put into crafting this razor sharp stake. A stake that pierces through the veneer of each of that special type of person who knows that they have great talents - and is completely right about this - and yet continues to spin their wheels.

“I think perfectionism is just fear in fancy shoes and a mink coat, pretending to be elegant when actually it's just terrified. Because underneath that shiny veneer, perfectionism is nothing more that a deep existential angst the says, again and again, 'I am not good enough and I will never be good enough.”

-Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

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Perfectionism is insidious. It prevents you from moving forward and trying things, yes. But how it does it is just as important - it looks down on things. It says they aren't good enough. This cripples you, yes. But how it does it is just as important. It does it from a place of superiority.

Double whammy.

Now you're left in the emotional position of being better than, while you are in reality not doing anything to earn this feeling. It distorts your beliefs and contorts you into a cognitive dissonance pretzel. Some realize the truth Liz states and slowly but surely bring their actions up to meet their talents, creating and building things that befit their level of talent.

Others, they are not so lucky.

Picture the older person you know, could be middle-aged, could be 70s, could be late 30s. That person who seems perpetually plagued, as if they carry with them an unfathomable feeling that they just didn't do enough when they had the chance. That hey let themselves down. That their time is over, and they missed it.

This feeling, to me, is worse than any nightmare you could conceive. It's what drives me today.

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Perfectionism is an illusion. It's a bogeyman you create to externalize your fear and say "see? It's crap anyway, there's no point." Perfectionism is hot garbage.

The antidote? Do it. Ship it. Let yourself move freely through the world. Throw it all out there like I'm doing with this cruddy blog, posting one article after the next. Just click "Publish" and let the world know who you are.

And keep doing it. You can. You will.

Love

Jake

(PS - I found the image above through a Google search for something meaningful to both this post and my life. It so happens that it comes on a T-shirt (and a lot of other things). See here.)