The fear of criticism …
It can certainly discourage you from writing in the first place, and it also can disguise itself as perfectionism when you do attempt to create content for your business.
If you delay publishing your writing — while you try to improve your content before anyone else reads it — you are likely trying to avoid criticism.
The false belief associated with perfectionism is that if everything is “just right,� you’ll protect yourself from someone pointing out something you did wrong or something they don’t like (which is impossible to control).
The pivotal word in the sentence above is “false.� In the pursuit of perfection, you both perpetuate a false belief and prevent yourself from being as prolific of a writer as you could be.
So, how do noteworthy business blogs gain recognition for their remarkable writing without the perils of perfectionism?
Face your true challenge (it’s not criticism)
Let’s imagine a scenario where no one criticizes your writing.
It’s not that far-fetched of a concept because it happens on many blogs every single day … blogs no one reads.
The downside of a lack of criticism is that your blog probably doesn’t have a substantial number of readers yet or your content doesn’t meaningfully impact the people it does reach.
Criticism can be unpleasant, but it’s not the most harmful thing for your blog. Obscurity is.
The non-perfectionist knows …
When you create content that isn’t boring and forgettable, there will always be someone who doesn’t like what you do.
Keep creating anyway.
Embrace “good enough”
A lot of people say “there’s no such thing as ‘perfect.’”
Here’s how I like to elaborate on that idea:
When you’re passionate about your work, aiming for “perfectâ€? may be necessary. But what you end up with is even better than “perfectâ€? … because it’s a creation you’ve made that no one can take away from you.
You can care about quality and produce meaningful work without driving yourself crazy.
If you never publish anything because you’re worried about making it perfect, you never get to experience the benefits of having your writing available for others to read.
“Good enough” is not an excuse to publish sloppy or uninspired work, though.
It’s simply a marker that helps you assess when your content is ready to be published. With each new piece of content you create, you’ll have a chance to improve and fine-tune your style.
The non-perfectionist knows …
Prolific writers learn how to gauge when their final draft is “good enough.� Missteps or mistakes still might happen, despite your best efforts.
Keep creating anyway.
Build confidence
By now, we’re starting to get comfortable with inevitable things that will happen when you publish your writing:
- People will disagree with you.
- A typo will occasionally appear in your final draft, even though you proofread carefully.
- You’ll change your mind and cringe at something you wrote a year ago.
And as you continue to get comfortable with the uncomfortable aspects of publishing, you strengthen your resilience and build your confidence.
Confidence is vital for content marketers. It’s what enables you to stand for something that matters and attract prospects who identify with your brand.
The more you produce, the less afraid you are of mistakes. Your confidence takes their power away.
The non-perfectionist knows …
Each published piece of content might not be a masterpiece.
Keep creating anyway.
Befriend your blog
Professional business blogs set and meet publishing deadlines.
That’s a lot easier when you like the topics you write about and approach your blog as an outlet to help your community.
If you don’t have readers yet, help the people you want to help even if they don’t know who you are. That’s the only way they’ll eventually discover you.
You have to start even if you don’t feel ready and before anyone is paying attention to you.
Working on one idea always leads to additional ideas for future pieces of content — and new ways to solve problems.
The practice makes you a stronger writer and a better resource for the prospects you want to attract. There’s no substitute for consistent writing practice.
As a former perfectionist who wanted to avoid criticism, it took me a long time to learn that. I actually wrote my first ebook to avoid creating a blog on my business website.
I felt comfortable putting all my perfectionist energy into writing an ebook, because once it was finished, it was finished. A blog was open-ended, and I’d have to constantly put my perfectionist energy into it. It seemed nerve-racking and overwhelming.
But when I eventually made a commitment to my blog, it was a huge step in the right direction for my business. Blog posts resonated with my ideal clients — who previously had trouble telling me apart from other service providers.
Before my business website had a blog, it’s like I was hiding. My blog not only made me visible, it made me the only reasonable choice for many prospects.
The non-perfectionist knows …
Your best writing that connects with the right prospects emerges when you’re actually doing the work. Since you start to reveal more about your point of view, will the wrong people also decide that you’re not for them? Sure.
Keep creating anyway.
Don’t save your (best) ideas
If a good idea fits into a blogger’s strategy, why would they wait to publish a post about it?
It’s typically a desire to wait until they have a bigger audience. Avoid that attitude and remember that everyone starts by serving the audience they currently have (or, when you don’t have any readers yet, the audience you aim to attract to your business).
Follow through with your idea, rather than hold off until a seemingly more ideal time.
You’ll always have a chance to write about the topic again in the future — and with new insights.
Is your blog or a different website the best fit for your idea?
As you become your own content editor, you develop skills that help determine the best place for a piece of content. And if you have an opportunity to write a guest post for a site that has a larger audience than yours, you always want to submit your best work.
The non-perfectionist knows …
It’s smart to use ideas that fit into your content marketing strategy right away, even if you wish you were already a bigger influencer.
Keep creating anyway.
Spread your most outstanding work
When you use one of your best ideas and recognize the content is special, repurpose it in different formats to reach more people.
A blog post will attract readers, but your target audience might also search for videos on YouTube. A version of that blog post that leads viewers back to your website can be put on YouTube so more people can discover and connect with your story.
If you have an outstanding product or service, you should be proud of the content you create to market it.
The non-perfectionist knows …
Even though it may be your goal to build your audience, it can be scary to expose your work to more people.
Keep creating anyway.
Noteworthy bloggers overcome perfectionism
Content is your chance to creatively position information in a new way — a way that your prospects want to hear it.
Aren’t you more interested in finding the information you need from people you know, like, and trust? Those noteworthy bloggers write despite their perfectionist tendencies or fears of criticism.
So, keep creating the work that gets people to know, like, and trust you.
Reader Comments (22)
It’s funny how many correlations there are between writing and cooking. My day job is as a cook. Being both a writer and a cook I have become accustomed to criticism. It’s all about how we take it, understanding that we can never please everyone. But any kind of criticism is much better than apathy. I also feel like, if there is not a chance of falling on your face, then it just isn’t as much fun. The chance for failure always makes the job more interesting. Thanks for sharing your tips!
What a great, light-hearted attitude, Sreejit. Sort of like, “Falling on your face … so what? No biggie.” It gives you a lot of freedom to do your best and then let go of the outcome. 🙂
You also bring up an important point about how we react to criticism.
If we can learn something from it and disregard the rest (or all of it if there’s nothing to learn) without taking any judgments personally, we’re well-positioned to stay productive and keep creating.
For most of the things I write, I do a cursory review for errors, but I try not to over-analyze what I’m saying. I guess my biggest problem is trying to figure out if what I’m saying has any value – do people see what I wrote and take anything away from it, or not? I think that your post is inspiring to those of us who DO fear being criticized, and I’ll be honest, I know at some point that will happen to my blog… I can only hope that I’m wise enough to see it as constructive and learn from it.
Right on, Kimberly. Making sure your message is clear before you publish is so important.
Publishing, seeing how readers react to your writing, and then fine-tuning your content as you go along may seem basic, but it’s a really powerful way to grow as a writer and marketer. Through that process you learn if your audience resonates with your work or if you should position your ideas in a different way. 🙂
This post from Brian has a great story that demonstrates the power of releasing your work to your audience: https://www.copyblogger.com/surefire-content/
Goodness I love this post Stefanie. And goodness, I am good at this topic 😉 Meaning I am pretty darn clear on my blog, my brand, and doing what I do from a space of fun, and playfulness, so I don’t judge my work. More importantly, doing things from a chill, fun energy helps me release folks who judge my work. It’s not that it’s good enough; it’s that I focus not on ideas like quality, or brilliance, but if I had fun creating something, I knew it was ME creating it. If I am being me and having a blast I meet tons more folks who appreciate the real me. Anybody offering positive feedback vibes with who I am, and any critic offering biting feedback is not comfy being themselves, so no issues, no worries, and no fear there.
We free spirits tend to attract critics at times, all of whom wish they were as free as we are 😉
Having fun and feeling good about your work helps you form a stronger bond with the right readers for sure. 🙂
There are indeed some virtues in being non-perfectionist at times, yet the trick lies in being consistent and fine-tuning your content creation…especially true when it comes to blogging for your business. Was captivated by your post, Stefanie and would vouch for it from my own experience! 🙂
It’s common for a non-perfectionist to still have a bit of a perfectionist in them. 😉
As creole being my first language, I’ve e struggled so much writing in English. 3 years ago I was writing about 20 words max on the blog but today I write enough to edit it too many times before I publish. I still have a long way to go but I’m glad I’m on the right track. I wish I read your posts 3 years ago. Thank you for writing it ! 😊
Wow, look how far you’ve come! Having to tackle editing now that you’re writing more is certainly a new challenge.
Thanks for sharing your progress, Mira — it’s great to hear about your persistence. 🙂
Writing makes you a better writer. When you first start to write, you will make mistakes… but I have news for you… you make mistakes even 10 years down the road. Trying to be perfect will prevent you from taking action.
While I try to make my writing perfect, I will post my writing for others to read. I can always change it later if there is a blaring mistake.
We’re definitely lucky it’s easy to correct digital content after publishing. 😉
Absolutely. I usually proof read about 5 times, then my wife will proof after I post and tell me what she didn’t like and all of my mistakes. My audience won’t say anything though, they will just move on.
I used to struggle with this as well. Nowadays I try to apply a “minimal viable product” mindset to all my blog post. Publish something that is good enough and if it doesn’t get the amount of view I was hoping for keep updating and tweaking it.
Thanks Stefanie – some great tips here. I struggle between over thinking and writing what’s going through my mind at any given time (problem is my best ideas are often when I’m out running and nowhere near a keyboard or pen and paper!)
If you can take your phone running with you, I’d try using it to jot down notes! 🙂
I know. I am so guilty of this perfectionism thingy.
But over a period of time, I have realized that I need to get my material out there and start getting feedback from my audience. Instead of wasting time on creating the most perfect piece of content.
Great lesson. Thanks for writing this.
Great post Stefanie…and thank you for the reminders! It’s so easy as a new blogger to get caught up in the perfectionist vortex. You want to put your best foot forward so you can gain readership, and start the long road to becoming an influencer in your niche. But in order to do that – you have to put yourself out there, and that can be scary. It’s so easy to become stuck in analysis paralysis. I found myself doing that recently. Now, I just need to write more! Will some posts totally stink, yes. But, you have to keep creating to build the blogging “muscle”.
Waiting for things to be “just right” as you put it is not only false, but doesn’t matter. Others are going to judge and if they want to find something wrong they will. I think it’s better to publish now and fix any minor mistakes along the way. Communication (which is exactly what writing/blogging is) doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to have a message the reader wants. As you put it, information is…information.
Thanks for writing this, Stefanie.
Sometimes we are our own worst critic. It’s only been in the past year that I’ve realized that I can’t let fear of failure prevent me from putting my best work out into the world.
We all have something unique to offer. Life’s too short to keep holding back.
Persisting, even if you think you “failed” at something, is definitely important. 🙂
Self-criticism is a powerful but dangerous drug. Too large a dose can kill your confidence and seriously knock your mental health.
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