13225: Remember This One Thing About Aiming For Perfection

Raw transcript:

yeah i’d like to talk to you today about
perfection not to make you feel less
than actually the
opposite uh I think sometimes we put so
much stress on ourselves to be perfect
without remembering one important thing
let’s talk about that one important
thing perfection imperfection and all
that in this episode of the Video Heroes
Podcast I see a recurring theme
happening all over the internet in a
number of different ways i saw a social
media post i couldn’t locate it or I’d
give you a little clip of it i saw a
social media post where uh several very
famous artists
works were
shown in process not the finished work
but in process the uh mistakes they made
the the paths they went down and then
came back from because it wasn’t working
out you know the sketch part but not the
finished painted part things like that
and I’ve also seen a lot of people talk
about just how fruitless it is to try
and pursue perfection um this particular
uh piece was on a blog from a lady named
Maddie i am a messy broken and imperfect
person my art is just as messy broken
and imperfect as I am and it’s a
beautiful
thing now Maddie has figured out
something that some of
us resist we don’t figure it out we
resist the notion of it and it can hold
us back and that is that perfection is
the goal now is being good at something
a goal
sure is getting better at something a
reasonable goal absolutely
but is being perfect at something a goal
that is worth pursuing i don’t think so
not usually um yeah there are some
things in our world existence I would
think you know brain surgery probably a
good one launching a rocket probably a
good one where you really want to be
perfect but even those things are filled
with
imperfections and you and I we’re not
doing that we’re not launching rockets
we’re not operating on somebody’s brain
we’re performing we’re writing we’re
we’re doing voice over we’re doing
acting and the the imperfections of
those things the messiness the humanity
of those
things counterintuitively you wouldn’t
think this but it’s true those are the
things that really draw the audience to
us because it shows our humanity it
shows our we’re just like them uh we’re
struggling we’re trying to do things the
characters that we play the characters
that we write you know I’m sure every
author who’s ever written a book would
love to go back and make some fixes
would make some changes everybody who’s
ever turned in an audition is thinking
to themselves “Oh did I do that as good
as I could have?” I don’t know who knows
maybe not maybe
um performances finished work you know
when I watch myself on television or in
films or when I hear myself uh doing
voiceover work either in an audio book
or a commercial or a a piece of
animation whatever it is um I could fall
prey to the notion and I used to think
“Oh god that sounds horrible that looks
awful why didn’t I Why didn’t I raise my
eyebrow on the word ‘the’?” You know who
knows
i’ve managed to let go of all that and
just say I’ve got more things coming
down the pike that I can do rather than
worrying about a something I’ve already
done b that’s something that I’ve
already done is all finished it I can’t
change it it’s not in my control
anymore it’s not worth worrying about
now having said all that is it worth
paying attention to how you’ve done
things so that you can do things
differently maybe better in the future
absolutely but don’t let yourself get
wrapped around the axle in terms of
being perfect it is a fool’s errand it
is something that will haunt you if you
keep trying to do that you know some of
us are raised by parents who wanted
perfection there are certain uh racial
and ethnic categories where it’s a lot
more important that parents just really
wear down their children in terms of
perfection it’s awful for me to to
witness but you know and then there are
other areas of our environment school
work peers that
can also send that kind of message
uh God I wish I could just hand you a
permission slip to say it’s okay let
yourself off the hook do the best you
can but don’t worry about it it’s not
going to be perfect ever and it doesn’t
have to be
perfect i hope that helps i really do
let me know what you think about all
this in the comments below if you’re on
voeres.com that’s where to join in the
conversation and tell me what you think
hit the like button if you like what
you’re hearing if it’s if it’s got a
message that resonates with you you can
subscribe to the channel you can uh
click the notification bell to find out
when new episodes in this series come
out you can even share this with another
actor or voice talent or writer who
needs to hear this message about
perfection and the folly of the pursuit
of perfection go ahead just copy the
link in the in the address bar above and
send it on their way i’m David H
lawrence the 17th thank you so much for
watching and for listening and I will
see you in the next episode of the VO
Heroes podcast

(from YouTube)