The Essential Guide to Overcoming Perfectionism in Your Creative Process
The *biggest* challenge I see facing creative entrepreneurs is all or nothing thinking. That flavor of thinking creates the perfectionist tendencies that keep you stuck and not moving toward your vision.
A peek into my agenda for this week.
When I coach on something like this, I really have to pay attention to all of the different ways that your brain likes to present its all or nothing thinking. Your brain is telling you that you’re doing everything or nothing. You’re winning or you’re losing. It’s very black and white and there is absolutely no gray area.
Once you have this polarized thinking embedded, your brain will reinforce it with confirmation bias. It will look for evidence to support that and will structure an entire BELIEF SYSTEM around this thought. Your brain has lawyered up so much evidence, and the argument is so structured that it just *feels* true in your bones.
In creative entrepreneurs, all or nothing thinking is a spectrum. On one hand, you think to yourself about how if you just keep going, just keep showing up, then you’re doing it. And on the other hand, it’s not working, I can’t do this, I’m failing. You can span the spectrum in a day. You can span the spectrum in an hour. You can do it in 5 minutes.
It’s creative whiplash… and honestly, your neck can’t take that anymore.
Strategic Creativity
When you work with me in FINISHIT, one of the things we’ll explore and expand in your brain is the method of Strategic Creativity.
It’s creating a system/map/blueprint of the way your brain works so you can see where you are in the cycle of your creation. It’s a way to remove yourself from the stronghold of the All or Nothing Thinking Spectrum and onto neutral ground where you can make decisions from your tuned-in self.
The part of the Strategic Creativity Blueprint I’m going to teach you about today is called Opening an Inquiry.
An Inquiry is just a few questions. It will help you probe, examine, and investigate the thoughts that are holding up your current belief system. And when you can think about your thinking and follow it logically down the path, the path that was previously dark and unknown will begin to light up.
You’ll want to open an Inquiry when you can feel your brain starting to spin out and especially when you’re stalled and not taking any action. Honestly, you can start using this technique right now instead of scrolling on the internet.
Open an Inquiry
Opening an Inquiry starts with asking yourself “What’s working?”.
It seems like a simple enough question. But let me tell you why we start here. Your brain has a proclivity for the dark and twisty. No, I’m not talking about those dirty boom boom fairies that you read about in ACOTAR that get you going. Your brain has a bias toward the negative. Honestly it’s just a lever in there to keep you safe. But left unchecked, she’ll keep you looping on what’s not working without seeing another option out.
So, what is working?
There will always be something you can put there. It could be the tiniest thing! Maybe you sat down at the time you said you would without any distractions. Cool - you’ve got that going for you. It’s half the battle. That might also mean you scheduled it earlier in the week, which is amazing. You’re beginning to trust yourself and follow through. What else can you put here?
Now we move into the question, “What’s not working?”.
Your brain LOVES this one. Baby, it’s your brain’s time to shine! Tell me everything that isn’t working. It could also be small or giant. BUT, I would challenge you to say whatever it is in the most neutral, fact based way you possibly can. So instead of, “I wasted the entire time I set aside to work on this project scrolling through social media.”, challenge that a bit.
I spent 10 minutes on IG looking for inspiration but couldn’t find any.
I didn’t re-read what I had already written.
I decided to look at Pinterest to see if there was anything that would spark my curiosity but I didn’t find anything. I spent 15 minutes there.
These are facts - minus the drama your brain likes to add to them.
And the Inquiry final question, “What would you do differently?”.
Since you’ve opened an inquiry about this particular practice, do you have any ideas for yourself going forward?
Perhaps it’s to create a list of how you want your creative session to go. Maybe it’s looking for inspiration before this actual sit down session and having it ready in a folder on your computer so you don’t have to scroll social media.
The more answers you have to the question “What would you do differently?”, the better. Seriously! The more options you have, the more things you can try equals the more ways to FINISHIT!
It’s like deciding you want to try a new pen but you only have two left and neither of them are great. OR, you have the entirety of Michaels at your disposal and you get to play with each pen. Which one sounds better?
You are now exiting the All or Nothing Spectrum. Please watch your step…
So what do you do with the Inquiry once you have the questions answered? Well I like to keep them in a notebook for my future self to use. It helps me create an avatar of who I am at that point.
If I’m beginning a new project, chances are high that my brain will offer that same little ladder of belief that I’ll need to climb in order to begin producing results. It’s going to challenge me, and I’m going to have my avatar of how I act when I’m beginning a new project along with my little book of what I could do differently.
As an entrepreneur and coach, I will ALWAYS be beginning a new project. It’s what I love about it. I just don’t love when I do the same things over and over again without opening an Inquiry. That falls under the ALL part of the thinking. Throwing myself at the same problem, producing the same non-results. No, it’s having my stack of what I would do differents. My stack of what’s worked. And my stack what hasn’t worked.
It’s methodical.
It’s experimental.
It’s not blind hope that it will eventually work out. You would lose out on ALLLLLL of this information if you just continually confirm your bias. I wouldn’t spend a lot of time believing, “It’s working”. And I sure as shit wouldn’t spend anytime on, “It’s not working.”
I’d zoom out and have all of the information.
What’s working.
What’s not working.
What I’ll do differently.
You can move from the answers to that Inquiry because you will have data. Data is allowed to be neutral.
Let’s say there are three things working. Ten things that aren’t working. And you have 50 things you could try differently. Can you see the wiggle room? The space for experimentation? The expansiveness of those options?
You’re never stuck. There’s so much power stored in the potential of 50 different things you could try. When you try them, then they get divided into the what’s working or what’s not working sections and having that data will open up even more potentials.
Who would you be if you could troubleshoot in your business and move forward no matter what the equation? The All or Nothing Spectrum is the only thing keeping you from moving your business forward.
I want to invite you to come on the transformation journey with me to take a look at what’s working, what’s not working, and get all the information to make your list of what you’re going to do differently.
If you’re ready to finish the project in your creative business that is keeping you from another revenue stream minus the overwhelm and burnout of your already full time life, join me in FINISHIT. Get your creative project done in 90 days.