When people take on creative endeavors, they sometimes find themselves facing a block. This is true for the first-time photography student as well as for the accomplished writer. There are different types of blocks and different sources for those blocks. One such block is perfectionism, one’s need to not “come up short”, to be the best, to be perfect.
In some instances, perfectionism can be a very damaging obstacle to one’s own creative process as it can block a person from either starting or completing a creative endeavor. The photography student may be fearful that she will never reach the artistry to which she aspires; in time, she may just give up her passion, having convinced herself that she doesn’t have the talent to be “great”, so why should she bother. The previously published writer may seek less challenging projects because he feels his previous work was never as accomplished as he had hoped for, regardless of how well others received it. He becomes his own harshest critic and rather than further disappoint himself, he limits his creative energy.
A very famous example of how perfectionism may affect one’s creative expression is Gustave Flaubert, the renowned French novelist. Flaubert took five years to write his novel Madame Bovary as he struggled to make every word in this book “perfect”. So obsessed was he with finding “le mot juste” (the right word), that Flaubert could take one week to write one page. He was dubbed by one famed critic as “the martyr of style”. Meanwhile, Flaubert’s contemporaries were completing their own celebrated works in less than a year.
Perfectionism is a creative block which many people experience. We may not be able to prevent ourselves from having these blocks but we can listen to the words offered by Steven Pressfield in his book, The WAR of ART: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, “The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear: then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist. What Henry Fonda does, after puking into the toilet in his dressing room, is to clean up and march out onstage. He’s still terrified but he forces himself forward in spite of his terror. He knows that once he gets out into the action, his fear will recede and he’ll be okay.”
Top image from Imgembed.
This is a cross-post from Ezine Articles.
Leslie Zeigler is a licensed clinical social worker and a creativity coach. You may learn more about Ms Zeigler by visiting her website, http://www.wellnessandcreativitycoaching.com.