Shutting down the Editor-Proofreader in me

I keep meaning to post things on my blogs, but frequently get stymied by my internal Editor-Proofreader.

Having been raised to be hyper-critical of everything, always looking for errors that need to be corrected, I find myself (in the words of one of my college professors) suffering from "creative constipation." 

I don't want to let anything out unless it's perfect.

The problem is, rarely (if ever) is anything I do "perfect."  So, I end up rarely (if ever) creating things... music, woodwork, landscaping, papers, books, or... blog entries.  Nothing's ever "good enough" to let it out.

I even struggle with doing drafts of work.

Now, to be honest, it's not ALL because of perfectionistic tendencies (even if I came by those honestly.)  No, some of it is due to the desire for efficiency.

If I can do it right the first time, then I don't have to waste time or energy redoing things.

The problem with that is, sometimes the most efficient way to get something done is trial-and-error.

And sometimes efficiency is not the highest ideal.  Some things just require more time.

For example, going through school "efficiently" - working each kind of math problem only once - would only help the student in the very short-term.  To learn things long-term usually requires repetition or some sort of major impact (like a highly-charged emotional experience.)  We don't learn mundane things instantly.

So, today I'm going to start to try just writing stuff - shutting down the perfectionist in me, letting things out BEFORE they've been edited and proofread in my mind so much.  Oh, I'm sure I'll still go back and retype things - to correct typos that I catch along the way.  (Heck, I'm doing that even now as I type this!)  But at least I'll get some stuff OUT!

So, for those few of you who are still reading... Thank You for bearing with me.  And hopefully this will prove to be of some value... eventually.