I recently signed up for the The ListServe.
Everyday, about 20,000 people get an email from another subscriber of The ListServe. They can write anything.
Today, I received an email from a lady who is shocked by the recent passing of her 40th birthday.
My last 2 posts were about my continuing battle against perfectionism. A big effect of my perfectionism is procrastination. My subconscious mind uses procrastination to prevent me from doing mediocre work. My mind has tricked me into thinking that anything less than perfect would be mediocre, and that mediocre would be unacceptable. It’s an ironic predicament because doing nothing is even worse than doing mediocre work. Furthermore, perfect is unattainable.
I had thought that my last post would be a one-off. I had so much to say about my battle against perfectionism, that I had to split it into 2 posts. Writing is a great tool to help process thoughts. Now I realize that I’m not in a battle against perfectionism—THIS IS WAR! I think I’ll occasionally return to this title with future posts. This post explores ways that I am currently gaining some territory against the non-existent target of perfect.
Hi, my name is Nathan and I’m a perfectionist. I used to think that perfect was a worthy goal. I was raised with the belief that anything worth doing is worth doing right. Somehow along the way, I fell to the notion that anything less than perfect was unacceptable, wasn’t worth doing at all. Eventually, I started to see that I haven’t followed through on many of my dreams and ambitions. I have started way more plans than I have finished simply because they weren’t coming together as well as I had hope for. I still believe that anything worth doing is worth doing well. But now I am learning to accept less than perfection from myself and others.
A couple weeks ago I took the Responsible Beverage Service Training (RBS) class. The class covered the effects of alcohol on the body, detecting underage customers, and server responsibility. So now I have the Responsible Beverage Service Training certificate! Here are some things I learned from the class.
Since quitting my job in air quality planning about a year ago due to, shall we say “irreconcilable differences” with management, I’ve been planning to start a brewery here in the Monterey area (California). MicroBrewr podcast is documenting my progress as a way to educate their audience through the process. I recently posted on MicroBrewr blog, an update on my progress. What follows is portions from that post, with additional bonus material.
(Full disclosure: The host, Joe Shelerud stepped down from MicroBrewr. I asked him to let me take over, and he agreed. The transition is already underway.)
