Eliminating Perfectionism

When I started putting music together, I had been playing consistently for 10 years. It was fun and I'd make music and it would just sit on my hard drive.

I didn't actually start putting music out on the internet until 5 years after that.

The problem is that if you're not putting out content, you can't grow. You can say you're a musician, but until you perform something or release something, no one can really know. It's like winking in the dark. You could be the greatest musician in the world, but if you held it to yourself, no one has a reason to believe you.

So this wasn't "working" in the sense that I had no goals of putting it up on YouTube. The outcomes could be sloppy or even unfinished, but no one would know. Releasing things actually forces you to refine your craft.

What we want is to get past the perfectionism hurdle that stops so many creative people from being consistent or even starting.

How?

It's not about a fancy todo list or motivational quotes.

You have to change your mindset.

Perfectionism?

What is perfectionism? You want something to be perfect. Good luck with that.

Let's do a little exercise. Go to your favorite YouTuber musician. Sort their content by oldest and tell me that you're either not at the same level or even better than where they started. The only difference is that they stuck with it and improved over years.

My favorites are FamilyJules and Beyond the Guitar. Looking at their starting points launched me into this because I thought if they can start there, I have no excuses.

And not to throw any shade, but there are tons of other musicians out there, with lower audio and video quality, putting music out there without a care in the world. (They might have more subscribers than you too).

That's not to say to go on YouTube and see who's worse than you. It should encourage you to take action and leave you with no excuses to get the ball rolling.

The last point with the quality of your work and how "bad" you think it is. You can get better. Believe it or not, if you put out a video, then ask and answer yourself "how can I make a better one." You can make a better one with time. You can learn how to record better, or have better lighting or camera angles. Shocker!

Destroying Perfectionism = A Mindset Shift

Here are a few ways to destroy your perfectionism mindset.

Accept That Your "Perfectionism" is Procrastination

• You want things to be the best, 100% objectively most flawless thing ever. That could take until eternity since you could always tweak things, so it could never happen, and it won't. You know where you're not allowed to do that? School. What if you had a recital in 3 weeks? Can you just tell your teacher "nah I don't want to perform because I can't play perfectly yet"? No way.

• Huge game companies (and you aren't one) set deadlines because money is on the line. If they push the timeline back a bit, their fans get upset. Delay a couple years and some of those fans aren't fans any more. There are people that will be fans no matter what, but if you're not a huge company, you're not allowed that same level of grace.

Your First Stuff Will Be "Bad"

• "Bad" is in quotes because "bad" is subjective. What if you had a kid that brought home art from school? It's a kid's artwork. Is it renaissance level? No. Would you tell your kid that? No. Why? Because if you did, you'd discourage them and they'd stop before they had the chance to get better.

• Here's the catch. You can only get better at something if you're bad at first. You just spent a ton of time improving at your instrument. Now it's time to get better at another avenue, and that's releasing content. Recording, editing the audio, filming, editing video and more are not musician skills. They're different. But they're all skills, which means you can get better (and get faster) at all of them. No one was born knowing 100% everything.

You're Afraid of Judgement

• Be honest. Putting yourself out on the intewebs makes you a target of criticism. This is a given, but I'll give you a pep talk.

• The harshest critics are the least productive people. (Armchair quarterbacks anyone?). They have no clue what it takes to put something out. You just spent a few weeks putting together a video and they just spent 2 minutes watching it. Then the only energy they spent was typing a few comments and/or pressing the dislike button. Ignore these people.

• The people that are also attempting to produce content would never criticize you. They may give feedback if asked, but other musicians know what it takes to put themselves out there.

• The other thing is to just get over it. You're going to get hate no matter how far you make it because you're just in front of more eyes. But don't let some negative comments stop your creative life. You're going to quit over some mean words? Keep going.

The Perfectionism Killer: Deadlines

• As I mentioned, you can't use the perfectionism line in school to push due dates on forever. Give yourself deadlines. Can't make it in time? Set another one. Just remember that if you're not putting life into the work, you can't grow, you can't gain subs and you can't do whatever else you're looking to do with this.

• I use the idea of "loose deadlines" with myself. Meaning I can't tell someone with 100% accuracy when a song will come out, but I do work on that song daily. At a certain point, you know if you're good enough to record the song. That means the next "practice session" is now a recording session.

• If you want to take it up a level, then tell other people your deadlines. Does that make you uncomfortable? Good. It means you have a higher standard for yourself.

You Will (or at least should) Improve as You Go

• Keep the content going to gain traction, but keep improving to grow. The more you do this, the better your stuff will look and sound, and more people will like it.

• You move towards BETTER and not PERFECT. Perfection is a myth when it comes to creative pursuits. Stop trying to find it.

Remember Why You Started

When you started on this journey, you probably had something in mind as far as a main goal. Let me blunt with you: people quit because they lose that vision. They stop because things get hard. Things worth something are hard. They require effort. You wouldn't spend a ton of time with a video game or feel fulfilled if you turned the cheat codes on and blew through it in 15 minutes.

It only feels good after the struggle. If you're not wanting to get started, you don't want it bad enough. What is "it?" I don't know. You tell me.

In the content game, constant output is the #1 driver of getting what you want. This is why channels get bigger purely from time, like channels that have had content for the last 15 years.

If you want something bad enough, then the hiccups shouldn't slow you down. Embrace them and push past them.

Now go put some music out there.

Check out my music while you’re at it.