You might have overcome a challenge, raised a family, left a personal situation,

5 min readNov 22, 2020

They all could have been improved in some fashion, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have published them when I did. If I had held back and micro-examined each piece searching for and finding flaws in hopes of making them perfect, they would all be sitting in my drafts section.
When you are tired and frustrated, you can’t think straight. That leads to even more mistakes. Sometimes your best course of action is to take a step back and allow your mind to catch back up to the present.
I’ve read many articles here from so many of my writing friends who have long extolled the virtue of not being perfect, either personally or professionally. They’ve written some really great articles about the paralysis of perfection.
There are many times (even this morning for me) when a writer may know what they’re about to publish isn’t their best work, but they also understand it’s good enough for now.

I don’t believe any of us will ultimately achieve perfection. But I know a lot of us, if we’re willing to acknowledge the fact there is always room for improvement, will get pretty d*mn close.

But those of us who do this writing bit of ours daily, know what it’s like when we hammer out some really crappy stuff. We’re always struggling to improve with each new body of work in the hopes of turning out something that will resonate with our readers.
A two hour job that turns into a 12 hour ordeal starts to break you down. The physical part comes first, but you don’t get into real trouble until you hit the mental exhaustion.
And as we tap that publish button, we tell themselves we need to improve on the next one, and the next one and so on. And though we know, it’s not our best work we try to be proud of this latest accomplishment, or at least we try to be proud of our ugly baby.
A lot of the veterans here already understand the rigors of constant improvement. They know full well if you’re not improving daily, you’re becoming stagnant and possibly heading in the wrong direction.

Now, don’t get me wrong here. There are quite likely going to be many days when good enough is okay. None of us can keep up this grand prix pace toward writing Nirvana forever.

Add your social media links to connect with your readers. Details can enable others to find you, connect, and collaborate. Networking is another successful marketing tool.

We understand we need to get back on the horse, bicycle, moped, or cross country elliptical and do it all again. We know we need to do it with the intent to write it better than the last time. We do it because it’s in our blood, of course, but we also know if we continue to write, we’ll get better at it.

With the ever present need for urgent results, human beings don’t give themselves enough time to stop and think. The inclination is detrimental to our species, and to our quest for individual satisfaction.

I’ve always thought perfection to be subjective. You know, the eye of the beholder and all that jazz. Think about this for a bit. Nature is almost always not perfect. It’s beautifully flawed and imprecise. If that’s the case, why should we and our writing be any different?

We were trying to put a new toilet on an old closet flange. Twice we had tried, and twice the toilet had leaked. Now the porcelain behemoth was filled with water making it heavy and awkward. To make matters worse, there wasn’t enough room in the mounting space to allow us to handle the toilet together.

And as we hold our noses and carry out the trash, we’re going to tell ourselves not to ever write something like that again. Or if we do, then make it a h*ll of a lot better than we did the last time.

They also know they’re never going to be able to make the decision toward constant improvement for you. Only you can do that. Only you can adopt the mindset that your best almost always needs to be better.

And we as writers are going to do the same. We’re going to throw some really sh*tty stuff on the table, and we’re going to realize (some of us sooner than others) that what we thought was one of our best works was actually a load of crap.

Look, the fact we’re Human guarantees we’re going to make mistakes; we’re going to take a wrong turn professionally; screw up a relationship or make a wrong financial decision.

Add your social media links to connect with your readers. Details can enable others to find you, connect, and collaborate. Networking is another successful marketing tool.I don’t believe any of us will ultimately achieve perfection. But I know a lot of us, if we’re willing to acknowledge the fact there is always room for improvement, will get pretty d*mn close.Add your social media links to connect with your readers. Details can enable others to find you, connect, and collaborate. Networking is another successful marketing tool.

You might have overcome a challenge, raised a family, left a personal situation,

Written by Hola Baba

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