Should you publish your blog post even though you might not have caught every error or wait until you can read through it another 17 times?
Should you launch your website even though you designed it yourself (and…gasp!…you’re not a designer) because you’re brand new to business and you can’t afford a designer or wait until you save $6000 to afford your dream designer?
Should you start an Instagram account if your photos aren’t up to the level of a professional photographer or wait until you can take a few photography courses and get a DSLR camera?
Is it okay to sometimes put out or even strive for B or B- (instead of A) work?
This is something I haven’t stopped thinking about since listening to a conversation between Amy Porterfield and Jon Acuff where they briefly chatted about this on Amy’s podcast, Online Marketing Made Easy (here’s the specific episode if you want to give it a listen–highly recommend!).
I’ve always been of the mindset that you should put out your best work…ALWAYS. But, I follow that up with the idea that it means YOUR best work…not someone else’s standard.
What’s the point of publishing a book if you’re just going to give it most of your effort but not all?
Or, what’s the point of creating a painting that you phone in?
Even though I believe this, the idea of putting out “B” work is genius for a specific group of people: perfectionists.
(Hello, my name is April and I’m a recovering perfectionist. I could tell you some stories that would make you think I have major Paris Geller problems. Such as how I went to my Dean when I received my only B in grad school at NYU–every other grade I got was an A–to demand my grade be changed to an A.)
This “striving for B work” idea serves perfectionists because they never, ever think something is good enough.
I know creatives who’ve come up with brilliant blog post ideas but didn’t write them because they might not turn out perfect or as good as “so-and-so’s” blog posts.
I know creatives who have blog posts sitting on their hard drives that they never posted because after the nineteenth round of editing they still didn’t think they were up to snuff. (Oh yeah…you know who you are. I’m pointing my finger directly at you.)
I’ve worked with entrepreneurs who’ve thought about selling “x” for YEARS, but they haven’t done it.
Why? They couldn’t do it perfectly.
They couldn’t hire a website designer to put together the perfect website, they didn’t know everything there was to know about Etsy, they didn’t know how to take professional photos of their products, and they didn’t know how to write the perfect sales page.
And, guess what has happened?
Life has gone on and these people have missed chance after chance after chance. Possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars. Possibly connections that could’ve led to a book deal or a deal for a fabric line or getting their stationery into Anthropologie or teaching at CreativeLive or leaving that day job they despise.
Perfectionists live in fear.
They delete their photos instead of posting them on Instagram. They talk themselves out of doing a Facebook Live because they’re terrified people won’t join, or there will be awkward silences or they’ll stumble over their words (also known as being human and learning). They delete their helpful and entertaining video footage instead of creating a video for YouTube.
Fear is ruling their ability to create and share what they create.
If you fall into this group of people who constantly questions themselves and never shows their work because “it’s never good enough” and always talks themselves out of trying creative things because it won’t be perfect, this idea is for YOU.
Aim to put out “B” work.
This takes the pressure off of having to perfect things before you share them with the world. It gives you permission to publish that blog post that might have an error that you missed even though you went through five rounds of editing.
When you find yourself falling into the perfectionist trap, come back to this thought process and tell yourself that you’re going for a “B” today–not an “A.”
Now, being a perfectionist in recovery, I know how hard this is to actually do.
You want that “A” sooooooooooooo damn bad. It’s hard to let go.
It’s a muscle you build up. The more you do it, the easier it gets to stop carrying such a hard load on your shoulders and letting go of the little stuff.
We’re human.
We all make mistakes and almost all of us (except that loser at his keyboard wearing dirty underwear and spilling Cheetos on himself who’s waiting to hate on anybody) overlook mistakes, because we make them, too.
Remind yourself that you’re doing your best and if you don’t want to have regrets ten years from now, start sharing that “B” work!
Thank you to Amy Porterfield and Jon Acuff for starting this conversation and giving me the inspiration for this blog post!
This hits home April! I’ve had my new blog “draft” ready to launch for months now but keep tweaking and reproofing, and planning more posts before I send it into the world! You’re right, all that perfectionism leads to missed opportunities. I’m going to put an official launch date on my calendar and do it! Thanks for the gentle push! (I always find something inspiring here!)
YAY! I hope it’s published now…or at least really soon. Come back and let us know and share the link!
That is me.
I gave up making my bed everyday, and pretty much have permanently sloppy hair butwhen it comes to my dream work, I’m scaredto put it out there. It’s never “finished”, never “good enough”.
I even hesitated publishing this comment, for fear it wasn’t “right”.
I like the idea of putting out B work!
Thanks, April!
THANK YOU for publishing your comment! I always enjoy your comments…always!!!
I did the same thing with my comment! I revised it a little and then thought I might just close the browser and not post in case someone thought it was stupid. lol! We’re hilarious!
Wow! How did you know this is just what I needed to hear, when I needed to hear it?!?! Thank you is not enough-you have just made yet another positive difference in my life!
You’re so welcome!
Why do I feel like I’m getting “the look” right now? roflol
lol
And the finger! 🙂
Because you are! lol! I thought of you right away! But I should add that it’s because we share so many character traits, especially when it relates to our creative businesses…another thing I’ve noticed is distracting from the current work at hand by developing yet another business idea, which of course will never come to fruition because by the time I start to flesh that idea out, yet another idea pops into my A.D.D. brain, and so it goes…learn another new skil…take another class…read another marketing book…Oh my gosh!.Thank you April! Your post was very timely, as always!
I literally made myself sick for years because NOTHING was every good enough. I still have that affliction, and this article is so timely for me, thank you! I qalways feel like I could have done better on everything, and this has caused me to hold back and wait and wait and wait forever to launch things, to say what I want to say, to take a chance. Those days are over..perfect or not, here I come.
YES…keep reminding yourself of this. It’s a hard habit to break. I’ve been there. Thanks for sharing!
Great post and thank you so much for sharing this. I did listen to Amy’s podcast episode about it and felt I had a lightbulb moment… which I soon forgot. Reading your blog post right now reminded me that I’m actually allowed to put out B work just when I was about to give my first video more time to sit in my computer as I wasn’t completely happy with the ending yet… I’ll just put it out today!! #justdoit
Just do it! YES! So glad you went ahead and put your video out there.
Oh man, I can so relate to this. Your examples had me seriously, but sheepishly, raising my hand over here 🙂 Thank you for the reminder and permission to create, even if it’s not perfect. You’ve inspired me to post one of those blog posts that have been sitting in my Google Docs for months.
YAY…so glad it inspired you to publish a blog post that’s been sitting…get it girl!
This is a very good point because, truthfully, B work from a perfectionist is pretty much A work to everyone else anyway :))
Exactly!!!!!!! YES!
haha yes!
This is so spot on and just what I needed right now. Thank you!
I have like four drafts lying helplessly for days on my website dashboard and i been thinking, should i publish them or i wait till tommorrow..
And then tommorrow becomes another tommorrow till the cycle never breaks…
Thanks for the reminder April
Get one of those drafts published. They aren’t doing anyone any good sitting in your dashboard! 🙂
This is so timely for me. I am preparing to launch my business and am so caught up in how to get everything looking and sounding right. I just need to give it a go and get on with it or I’ll never get it done. Thanks April!
Yes…it’s definitely a necessity when you’re launching your business. You’ll learn as you go and tweak so many things. Even if you try, you can’t possibly get everything exactly how you’ll want it down the road.
Ok this is me (almost).
I’m not really the perfectionist more just under confident about my blog posts.
I think I’m getting better at clicking the publish key but I still have a lot of draft posts I need to go back to.
Chris
https://www.family-photographer.co.uk
Well, this can work for you, too! Go back to some of those drafts, give them a polish and schedule them to publish. Then, you’ve got content already done…sounds like a win to me. 🙂
I know I’m a bit late to the party here – I’ve actually had this post up in my browser since the day after it published, but didn’t allow myself to read it for fear that I would have to add more things to my to do list to help me out of my perfectionist mindset. lol! Thankfully I finally read it. I think I’ve been in recovery for many years now because I do approach some things with the B quality mentality. Like in my pilates class today I let myself stop during an exercise because that muscle just wasn’t developed enough to do as many reps as everyone else. And I didn’t beat myself up about it or revisit the exercise at the end of class to finish the reps I missed. But when it comes to work – that’s where I have a really hard time accepting the B. I feel like I wouldn’t want to pay someone for B level work so why would anyone pay me for B level work. I’ll keep trying! Thanks for this article April!