Coping with perfectionism

[Lucie Y]

Hi there! I love this conversation.

Perfectionist/obsessive human here! 

I loved reading about everyone's experience with perfectionism.

Personally, it was holding me back from getting out of my comfort zone and actually completing projects.
The solution I found for this was hiring people around me to be my calligraphy "guinea pigs". Basically offering free calligraphy work for them, having 2 or 3 projects lined up. This forced me to finish projects (decoration for nurseries, bookmarks etc.). Thing is I kinda had to, because I had committed to it, and also at some point I would get tired of a project and just FINISH the darn thing so I could move on to the next.

This helped me grow and I'm still doing it. It also allows me to micropractice on the name/word/short phrase of the project, so I get the satisfaction of studying my letter forms in depth despite the frustration of having to finish a job 

Basically, I needed to assign myself homework, that I had to turn in even if not perfect.

And now I have a bunch of innocent guinea pigs hanging my experiments in their homes, and they're delighted 

[Erica McPhee]

Great idea @Lucie Y ! Exchanges are also another way to get elevated practice and let go because you have a deadline.

[Lucie Y]

Great idea @Lucie Y ! Exchanges are also another way to get elevated practice and let go because you have a deadline.

@Erica McPhee absolutely! I was going to say that but I forgot. Although I t'il now I didn't feel ready to participate, I realize the exchanges are a similar strategy for getting of your comfort zone of endless practice and stiffling self criticism.

[Erica McPhee]

Yes and we have all skill levels participating.