What’s Your Typo?
A few weeks ago, I publicly recommitted to my blogging practice. I blog because similar to yoga and running, blogging and writing are ongoing practices for me. Blogging and writing are a practice that I consider a way to publicly show my work, a way to publicly let you, the reader, into my thoughts, a way to publicly let you see my process. For me, this is an inherently flawed practice because even my 2nd, 3rd, and sometimes 4th drafts have multiple distracting errors that can confuse and deter the reader. I have made the deliberate choice to put work out into the world consistently even though I know an editor has not laid eyes on it, even though I am well aware it is full of errors I have not caught, even though I know that when this is brought to my attention (with the best of intentions), as it often is, that I will feel a tremendous amount of shame.
As a one-woman show writing for my email list and writing for my blog are incredibly vulnerable practices, especially because I believe I have an undiagnosed learning disability of some sort. I mention this from time to time, but I don’t like to dwell on it because whatever is not right in my brain helped me to focus on the process, not the outcome or result of my writing. I do choose to write and share my unedited 3rd and 4th drafts with you despite the fact that I know it will not be even close to perfect. Despite my fear of sharing this unedited work, despite feeling like my work is inadequately professional, despite knowing people will write to me and tell me where I have typos, I still choose to share my work with all of you.
So much of what we see in the world these days has been scrubbed clean by teams of people, multiple pairs of eyes that we’ve lost sight of what’s real in the highly curated digital world. My writing life is gritty, is raw, is full of typos and errors because to me a blog is a way to journal to all of you, it’s a piece of my business, but it’s not the focus of my business, it is all about the process, not perfection. I know that if you read the blogs of very professional publications like Elephant Journal, Mind Body Green, or something by people like Glennon Doyle or Tim Ferriss you’re seeing polished work because it went through a team. I doubt their earlier work is what we see on their websites today, but if they did pull off perfection early on, kudos to them! I am working towards being able to hire an editor because gosh polished and edited feels good, and it makes it so much easier for you the reader, but for now, you have my raw and real work, and 99% of the time I haven’t been able to pay an editor, or get the eyes of a trusted friend on it to clean it up. I am still in the process of becoming, the process of becoming the type of professional who can hire an assistant and editor among other team members I hope to someday soon have.
There have been times, years even that I have let my fear of my grammar and spelling errors keep me out of action. I’m writing to you about this now because I believe that every single one of us has something similar that can cause us to feel the type of shame that makes us want to hide our work under a rock, or like me at times, not even do the work at all because I know I don’t have the resources to get it near close to polished. This is the same energy that tells us our work needs to be perfect before we can share it with anyone. While perfection is what you want from a surgeon or a performer on a stage, I'm not sure that’s what you actually want from me, a coach at this place in my business. I want to show you the journey I’m taking on my way to building Yoke and Abundance into what I hope it can be and I do this because I believe the most powerful way a person can lead is by example. I believe a coach is supposed to teach you that you should not wait for perfection to share your work or gifts with the world. I’m committed to being transparent with you in my journey.
For me, typos, inability to spell, and my poor mastery of grammar can keep me out of action and sitting in a shitty pile of fear, feelings of inadequacy, and deep shame. The lesson I hope you’ll take from my work typo’s and all is that you’re seeing someone who doesn’t get it right, is just as afraid of imperfection as you are, my work isn’t perfect (nor is anything in my life for that matter) and I’ve embraced the process anyway and put it out there for you to see! I show my work in an attempt to connect with you, flaws, and all. This is what blogging is about for me, a way to put feelings into the world that I think will hit a nerve with others. I’m also illustrating the value of consistency and showing up flaws and all, which I value more than perfection. I’ve made the promise to myself to show up to this writing and share it with all of you because that keeps me accountable, but ultimately my blog is more for me than anyone else.
You might be great at grammar and spelling, but maybe you’re holding back on doing something important to you because you think it needs to be perfect first. I’m here to tell you that’s a lie. It especially doesn’t need to be perfect at the start.
What do you feel needs to be perfect before you put it into the world? What are you holding back? If it didn’t have to be perfect what would you attempt and why?
If there is something you want to try or do but aren’t because you think it must be perfect first, then let’s chat. Schedule your free 30-minute discovery call with me below.