How perfectionism ruins excellence.

[CreamCat]

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was a popular writer in the 20th century. However, he started failing hard once he started obsessing over every little detail of his work. He wanted his novel to be a perfect work of his lifetime and started obsessing over every little detail. As a result of obsessing over detail, he lost confidence and produced a failure.

After `The Great Gatsby` failed, he received a barrage of bitchy criticisms and found it very difficult to write novels. He began writing screenplays for hollywood, but he regretted having done so. After just one failure, his wife was admitted to a mental hospital. He succumbed to heavy alcoholism and died at the age of fourty four. A perfectionist quits after one failure. Fitzgerald quit novel writing after one failure.

I think what happened to him was that perfectionism ruined excellence and joy. He forgot what it was like to enjoy writing.

Mastery process is the opposite of perfectionism. I think mastery process is what leads to real perfection which is the process of getting better and getting closer to perfection. An artist's job is not to be perfect but to create, get better, and enjoy the process.

Quote

If you enjoyed the entire process including mistakes and imperfect stuff, you would accomplish more, not less.

If a perfectionist doesn't get result, it gets pissy and bitchy. When a perfectionist doesn't get result immediately, it wants to quit.

The master is in it for the long haul and enjoys the work. The true artist loves the art form.

A masterful painter loves to paint, not because it needs to produce the perfect paint. It actually likes the process and the medium.

 

 

 

Edited December 6, 2018 by CreamCat