Three Tips on Overcoming Perfectionism, Inspired by YouTube Star Clara Lieu
Has perfectionism been holding you back from pursuing your dreams?
If so, I have three words for you: Just. Do. It.
I’ve been thinking of starting a blog for a long time. 13 years to be exact.
When I was freshly married and a struggling freelance journalist, one of my best friends told me to start a blog. (This same friend told me to start a podcast at least 6 years ago, when “Startup” by Gimlet Media launched. As you know, I finally launched my podcast 2 months ago.)
I never did the blog because I told myself, “You don’t have anything to say. You don’t have time.”
And this is the biggest reason of all: “You can only start a blog if you post 3 times a week for the next ten years…”
You know what? Those are all lies, hiding under the biggest lie - you have to be perfect to put yourself out there.
I remember when I was growing up, one of my chores was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner. My mom would redo my work (often) and say, “Always do a perfect job.”
Now as an adult, I rarely clean the house. I tell myself I’m enjoying the freedom of not doing a perfect job - I just don’t do it at all.
But this morning I woke up at 5:30a because I was too excited to sleep. Last night I recorded a podcast interview with one of my best friends from childhood, Clara Lieu, who’s now a YouTube artist with 90,000 subscribers. That episode won’t come out for a few weeks (I’m a perfectionist, right? I “have to” edit it :))
I want to share some quick takeaways:
1.) Share your imperfections
Before last night, I hadn’t seen or talked to Clara in 22 years. When I started recording the episode intro, I was reading my copy and trying so hard not to laugh because I kept thinking about how Clara and I used to have sleepovers in high school, re-enacting scenes from movies and eating giant bowls of Breyer’s mint chocolate chip ice cream for breakfast.
I turned off the mic and told her my thoughts. Clara, YouTube expert that she is, told me to always leave the tape rolling because people love that stuff - I can always edit it out later. When I re-rolled the tape and tried to crack some jokes for the show, it just wasn’t as funny because I was too nervous about how I’d sound. (I’ll be taking those jokes out…)
2.) Mistakes humanize you and make you more relatable
Clara said when she was first starting her YouTube channel, she thought she had to be “perfect” to fit her brand and level of professionalism. But when she looks back on those old videos today, they seem too sterile. And then she spilled her coffee while on camera. People loved it! They totally bonded with her over it, typing it into the comments. Now she leaves those “mistakes” in.
On my end, I spent much of my career in journalism, where I was completely removed from the story and worked so hard to seem “professional”. Grad school trained me to appear unbiased, authoritative and polished. I’ve shied away from launching a YouTube channel because I thought I had to be “perfect”, and it would be too much stress to clean up my messy house (I’ll get a virtual background), do my hair and makeup (better get on camera now before I get any older :)), and worry about mistakes during interviews (not sure what I’ll do about those yet, but see above lesson about spilled coffee). Again, excuses. So, sooner or later, you’re going to see the video from the podcast interviews.
3.) You don’t have to be perfect to try something
When I asked Clara how she got to 90,000 subscribers, she said she just tried a bunch of different things to see what worked. She doesn’t have a master plan of execution.
And neither do I.
We have goals, for sure, but we’re not exactly sure how we’re going to get there.
Try things out and adapt along the way.
I launched this podcast thinking down the road (years from now) I might do a blog or YouTube. But the more I think about it, the more I think I should just get something out there before I talk myself out of it.
A friend was talking to me a few nights ago, debating whether she should launch a YouTube channel. Some of the best advice I got lately, from another friend, is just try it. Do 3 YouTube episodes and see what you think, how you like it, how it goes.
So that experiment is this blog. It probably won’t be 3 times a week (unless I have major insomnia and / or get major childcare.) Maybe it will be three times a month.
But if I can share valuable ideas with you (or at least process my own thoughts aloud here), I consider that a success.
How about you - do you struggle with perfectionism? What are your tips to overcome it? What projects are/have you been afraid to pursue? How are you chasing your dreams?
