“What is the purpose of my life? How do I find a moral compass so I can tell right from wrong? What should I do day by day to feel fulfillment and deep joy?” David Brooks asks these questions in his New York Times…
You’ve known about the deadline for months, but you still pull an all-nighter to finish it 12 hours before it’s due. As perfectionists, we fear that we cannot complete the task perfectly, so we put it off for as long as possible. We delay the criticism…
“It should be, and probably has been, told to a psychoanalyst, and it has been elaborated into a novel which contains some wonderful writing, but it is overwhelmingly nauseating, even to an enlightened Freudian. To the public, it will be revolting. It will not…
What is more important to you? Your career or your character? In his NY Times article, “The Moral Bucket List,” David Brooks discusses “résumé virtues,” those that apply to our external career: wealth, fame, and status and “eulogy virtues,” those that apply to our inner character: kindness,…
‘There was once a proud teapot; it was proud of being porcelain, proud of its long spout, proud of its broad handle. It had something before and behind,–the spout before and the handle behind,–and that was what it talked about. But it did not…
On Blank by Blank, David Foster Wallace on the dangers of perfectionism: “You know, the whole thing about perfectionism. The perfectionism is very dangerous, because of course if your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything. Because doing anything results in— It’s…
In her memoir, Yes Please, Amy Poehler discusses how she moved forward from the fear and difficulty of writing her book. We can use her advice to move out of our comfort zone…to do things before we’re ready. In Amy’s words, we can all become “open-faced sandwiches who take…
What is the Lizard Brain? “The lizard brain is hungry, scared, angry, and horny. The lizard brain only wants to eat and be safe. The lizard brain will fight (to the death) if it has to, but would rather run away. It likes a…
As a perfectionist, my childhood was filled with SAT prep courses and all-nighters. Success equaled A+, and failure equaled everything else. My life was mapped out for me, and as an adult, it left me afraid of failure and fearful of trying new creative…
Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life provides a guide on how to write and how to manage the life of uncertainty for many fiction writers. Her humorous wisdom on perfectionism can be used by all: Feature Image Source:…
Imperfectionist Books Quotes Seth Godin Wisdom
Seth Godin’s V is for Vulnerable: The ABC Guide for Imperfectionists
Seth Godin’s V is for Vulnerable Lift Outside the Comfort Zone is a ready made ABC book for the imperfectionist. Seth Godin packs a punch in this short picture book, and in typical Seth Godin style, he manages to send a powerful message about…
Angela Duckworth defines grit as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals”, but no one describes the relationship between grit and perseverance better than Seth Godin in his book The Icarus Deception: Feature Image Source: On Taking Pictures…
