A powerful insight of mine about hacking perfectionism, feeling better, more productive and unblocking myself to get things done.
Idea ⇒ Inspiration ⇒ Perfectionism ⇒ Block
For example, you want to create a new web-service, you want to start a blog, youtube channel or write and article. It seems fun and exciting! But then «brain happens», nothing is done and you feel «blocked» or paralysed. Maybe this pattern happens too often and happens within years?
Why so?
Here is mine insight on why this is happening! At least in my case.
Mood represents the momentum. The momentum allows actions to flow. Perfectionism tends to change that mood, kills the momentum and makes doing a struggle.
Let’s unwrap it.
But before I would kindly suggest you to check out my blog. There's some nice stuff over there!
Mood As An Engine
Once I’ve read a powerful opinion about the science of mood. And an insight I’ve experienced was this:
Mood represents the momentum. Momentum leads to actions.
Momentum is like a wave you can climb and ride. It’s just so easier when it’s fun and joyful. It’s a really nice friend to accompany your actions.
And it clicked for me.
The mood is not only nice to have. The mood is quite a requirement.
You can definitely ignore it and fight through. But it’s totally different strategy.
Perfectionism as a Mood Killer
My experience from a perspective of mood and momentum: perfectionism is their biggest nemesis!
The most common end result of perfectionism is a struggle to act
Recognizing The Tradeoff
It’s extremely hard for me to combine «perfect» and «fun». Fun vs perfect is a tradeoff I have to negotiate about with myself.
Recipe for productivity
- Recognize the power of mood on actions
- Protect the mood
Question yourself
- Should you do stuff if you feel like shit doing it? Is it a path of becoming a better human or beating yourself until you break? Maybe it’s both?
- How does execution of the idea influence your mood?
- It is possible to combine having fun and perfectionism?
- What kills your mood?
- What about bad mood and momentum?
Let the mood be with you!
Please, consider checking out my website for more insights. You might find it valuable.
Top comments (9)
Please, comment below your thoughts on this issue. I do want to know is it something you've experience by yourself and what do you think about the «solution».
I was a person who bothered to let time go by and I wanted to continue learning always, but when I changed company 1 year ago I feel unmotivated to start new projects and I just let the time pass because it is comfortable, I think all the effort did not work, and if now begin to learn or I will do nothing, sometimes I want to start something and I get excited with new languages such as flutter or rust, but I think I have no projects or ideas and discourages me the idea to start for nothing. I think I need to focus on a project that makes me happy, but at the moment it is difficult. Great article and thank you very much.
Hm...
Btw, would someone be interested in an article about an approach on how to get ideas?..
yes
Yeah, it can be interesting ;)
Keep strong and keep digging into yourself.
Myabe try coupling with someone? Or find someone inspiring. One person I can recommend to check is mpj. He is an inspiring guy!
Another thought that comes to my mind is try to ask yourself: what can I code that will help me personally in my life? Maybe a chat box that help you schedule things or count something, maybe some tracker, or timer, or simple todo stuff. I'm not talking about something huge. But something small and useful particularly for you.
Cheers!
I spoke with my project manager today about this, and I've realized that I like to program to make people happy, I know it's a bit of an odd motivation, but I'm going to try to focus on that. Thank you very much, your article has helped me a lot.
That is huge! Happy for you!
This