Am I A Perfectionist?

 

        Hello, gentle readers! Hope you are all well and staying safe!

I have a news flash….well, it isn’t a news flash to anyone who knows me well…I struggle with perfectionism (and yes, I do mean struggle). The words “it’s good enough” don’t enter into my vocabulary very much.

Here’s an example. I’ve been working on my query letter for The Maverick and Miss Miller, getting it ready for submission. It’s a short letter—only one page so how many times have I gone through it? Read it and tweaked it? So far, it’s twelve…and I’m still not happy with it. It’s not “perfect”.

Same thing with the synopsis. At last count, it’s eight…and I’m still tweaking. We’re not even going to talk about the manuscript itself. At this point, I can tell you there are no spelling mistakes, no missing words (because your brain will fill in what’s missing), no obvious, glaring grammar issues and I know it’s as clean and as well-written as I can make it so at what point do I say “yeah, they’re ready, just submit the darned thing”?

It’s the same with my work life. I struggle for that perfectionism knowing full well I’ll never achieve it…and still, I try. And try. And try. I hate making mistakes. It actually hurts my soul to do so. I'll read a report five or six times before I submit it. The same with important emails (and yet, I still manage to hit all my deadlines). 

This striving for perfection is in my home life, too. When I clean, I clean. It’s not a “spit and polish” like my mother always said, it’s full-bore, from top to bottom.

I think it goes back to my childhood and the lessons taught (one would think, at my age, I would have "tweaked" those lessons, but no, they're hard-wired now). “Always give 110 percent” and “A job worth doing is worth doing well”.

Okay, I’m ready. I’m just going to load everything up and hit that submit button! I’m going to do it. Right now…

No! Wait! Let me do just one more read through… 

Stay well! Stay safe! And remember to spread kindness wherever you go!

Marie