Confessions of a recovering perfectionist
Perfection isn't a worthy goal. It's a millstone around your neck.
Gary Bloomer | SHAKING THE TREE #189
Perfectionism is a trap.
If you’re waiting to discover the perfect:
webpage template,
content strategy,
or to figure out exactly right time to begin creating content …
you will wait and wait and wait.
Perfection is a fool’s errand; a black hole that will swallow your plans and devour your enthusiasm.
The only way to overcome perfectionism is by taking bold, decisive action.
While it’s natural to want to produce work that’s valuable and polished and impactful, an endless pursuit of perfectionism will erode your confidence, hobble your enthusiasm, and slow your progress to a crawl.
Perfectionism isn’t salvation, its an excuse for procrastination, inaction, and fear.
Personally, I’ve used perfection as an excuse because I used to be too afraid of appearing foolish, or of getting things wrong, or of screwing up publicly.
I’ve fallen into the trap of endlessly editing, rewriting, and rephrasing—ceaselessly researching and cross referencing—obsessing over every citation and reference, and over analyzing every detail, only to wind up producing nothing of value.
If you’re waiting for the perfect anything, be it a template, or a post idea, or a video edit, or an article draft, you’ll be waiting forever.
The cure for perfectionism is to get stuff done and up and out and to do so over and over and over again RELENTLESSLY until you turn yourself into a content machine.
Left unchecked and unchallenged perfectionism leads to paralysis.
Between 2010 and 2019 I convinced myself I was being careful, mindful, and intentional. I bought into my own bullshit about needing more time to refine my message and to craft my ideal message.
In reality I’d become helplessly trapped in a cycle of overthinking and over planning, only to second-guess myself into oblivion.
Meanwhile, other people, many of whom were less qualified and much less knowledgable and WAAAY less obsessed with perfection were out there, writing and publishing, and learning, and growing—building their audiences and making money.
Success in content creation isn’t about waiting until you get everything right—it’s about knowing things will never be perfect and getting started anyway—becoming better as you make progress.
Many creators believe that their audience expects flawless content.
They don’t.
The truth is that most people don’t care about your material being perfect.
People don’t engage with content because it’s perfectly written, edited, or formatted—they engage because it’s interesting, relatable, or useful.
Some of the most successful content creators post raw, unpolished thoughts that spark conversations.
Others share insights that are imperfectly worded but deeply valuable.
When your content is irrelevant it resonates no matter what shape it’s in.
Every successful creator started out being crap at what they were doing, and I’ll bet you a million dollars that in most cases, their early work work wasn’t perfect. The difference between those who succeed and those who fail is simply that successful people keep creating, while perfectionists stay stuck.
Content creation isn’t about everything being right, it’s about consistency.
The better you get, the more impact you have.
Perfectionists, on the other hand, never build momentum because they never put anything out into the world. It does not have to be perfect, it simply has to be done!
The best content creators understand that a published post, even if it has flaws, is infinitely more valuable than one sitting in drafts that no one has ever read.
A video with minor mistakes still has the power to reach and help people.
Instead of overanalyzing, start publishing. Success isn’t about creating flawless content—it’s about showing up, learning, and improving along the way.
If you wait for perfect, you’ll never start. If you start, you’ll eventually get better than you ever imagined. The choice is yours.
As always, thanks for reading.
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P.S. Next time on Shaking the Tree … Is the typical blog post dead?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.