How to Abandon Perfectionism and Share More on Social Media
Welcome to Week Ten of Personal Brand Accelerator. In Week Ten, my students have been asked to participate in the #PBAChallenge. The challenge is simple: create and share one piece of content per day in a style you show promise in. The content could vary. One could share an Instagram story of them talking into the camera, a TikTok video, or a static Instagram post per day. The goal is to challenge ourselves.
I’m participating in this challenge with a commitment to posting one blog post per day. The reason? Well, I suppose I feel a certain degree of resistance around blogging. Even though I enjoy it, it’s hard for me. I imagine this is because it requires a deeper level of focus and attention than it takes for me to create a piece of content for Instagram. When I blog it is easier for me to make mistakes, leave typos, and feel like I am never doing enough. So I’m challenging myself to lean into the resistance, become aware of it, squirm in it, and continue moving forward despite being uncomfortable.
Here’s a tip I try and remember: let go of the idea that content needs to be perfect for it to be shared. No piece of content will ever be perfect. A post can always be better before it is shared. The truth is, there are simply are not enough hours in the day to agonize over every detail. So how does one abandon perfectionism and share more content on social media?
The only way out is through.
If you want to be a good blogger, you have to blog. If you want to be a good podcast host, you have to record podcast episodes. If you want to create great TikTok videos, you have to make TikTok videos. Your first piece of content might fall short of your expectations. I know mine did... but that doesn’t mean you refrain from posting altogether. It means you move forward so that your 100th blog post is the bee's knees. It means you keep going even when it’s uncomfortable. It means you say, “I’m going to post it anyways,” even when it’s not perfect.
All you can do is what you have time for.
Sometimes it’s hard to bring your vision to fruition. The lighting isn’t right, you’re not wearing the right outfit, or you don’t have enough time to capture the shot you want. The truth is, you’ve got to work with what you got and keep going. Notice the difference between, “This doesn’t feel authentic to me,” and “This isn’t perfect so I am not going to post it.”
Trust me, if I heard every excuse in the book and I’ve made every excuse in the book.
If we had unlimited hours in the day to make TikTok videos and Instagram stories then I am sure our content would look a little different. It might be more polished and put together, the edits might be cleaner, and the sound quality might be better. However, we don’t. All we have is the time that we have. We’re busy, we’re moving, and we’re creating. Let’s keep rollin’ with it!
Remember that no one expects you to be a world-renowned filmmaker or Pulitzer prize author. Drop those expectations because that’s not the goal. The goal is to share what’s true for you. Share what is true for you over and over again. That’s all you can do and then your job is done.
Your job is done and then it’s time to move on to the next task at hand.
Self-worth is self-made.
Accept when there are imperfections and detach your sense of self-worth from your content. A few weeks ago I shared a TikTok video that included a bare shot of my bum. After I posted the video I went to do something else and came back to a flurry of critical comments in my inbox. My heart sank. A mixture of anger, shame, and embarrassment boiled in the pit of my stomach. I felt "bad.”
The next day I posted a follow-up video that received a flurry of positive comments, telling me that I was beautiful, strong, and courageous and that I didn’t need to worry about the “Karens” of TikTok… the complete opposite response from the evening before.
This is what I noticed.
On the first day, I was distraught, anxious, and emotionally sick. On the second day, I was empowered, uplifted, and encouraged to keep sharing content on social media. On the third day, I became hyper-aware of the emotional rollercoaster that TikTok had put me on. I talked about it with my team and friends… ultimately concluding that everyone is entitled to their opinion about our content whether we like it or not. And if everyone is entitled to their opinion (something we can't control) then it’s unwise to gather our sense of self-worth and comfortability in a source that isn’t stable.
It has to come from within. It has to be self-made.
We cannot be without value, we can only forget that it is there. Remember the golden rule: we are valuable because we exist. All of the rejection we’ve experienced, the nos we’ve been told, the painful comments that have derailed our progress, can do nothing to diminish our value. Self-worth is self-made. It comes from within.
View all comments the same.
Whether you receive positive feedback or critical feedback, view it all the same, it’s feedback. You can choose to listen to the feedback and use it to fuel your future pieces of content, or you can choose to disregard the feedback and move on. The choice is yours.
It’s also worth noting that all pieces of feedback aren’t necessarily true for you, but they are true for the person who is experiencing your content. This is a good thing because it means that their comments are a reflection of them, not you.
Perfectionism is a form of anxiety. If you have a desire for your content to be perfect, ask yourself, “Why?” Get curious. What are you really afraid of? Write those fears down. Expose them. It’s good to talk about them out loud with a supportive community who can help you overcome your fear and reach the other side. While it’s good to take pride in your work, the problem arises when your expectations for perfection inhibit you from sharing content (your truth) with others. Don’t let this happen! Keep my tips in mind. And remember, you’ve got this.
