Caught in the web or self-editing

Hey Reader! As creative individuals, our minds are filled with ideas, innovation, and imagination. However, there is a skill in transforming that into interesting content. Often we face the challenge of self-editing and lose the best ideas. The fear of imperfection, the desire to meet certain standards or the feeling that you might say something wrong can lead us to overanalyse and overedit our content. It might become something else, or not get posted at all if we take it too far. There are two sides to this perfectionistic editing coin. You can either lose your story by trying to be too complete: Like my client who was trying to write an email where she was describing a story of what happened to her. She wanted to convey what had happened and how it made her feel, but at the same time wanted to keep the order of events exactly as they happened. It was making the story needlessly complicated. By playing around a little with the order, she could cut out some parts and actually make the story more accessible and therefore create the point of her story more clearly. The other side of this coin is completely editing your story, and your personality out because it is messy and not the ‘standard’ story. For instance, I recently ‘found’ a story in myself on lessons I learned from IVF that also apply in business. I truly believe it could be an interesting story to share. But I keep self-editing it, probably until I have forgotten my points. Because it’s not the ‘standard’ story and shares some vulnerable points that are harder to say than to think. But is that fair? Is it fair to self-edit ourselves to a point where we leave out all the quirks, the idiosyncrasies, and the imperfections that make us us? Is it fair to show up as this simplified version of ourselves, not showing our (potential) clients all of us? I feel like it's time to break free from the self-editing shackles and unleash the full force of our creativity. Allow your ideas to flow without restraint, knowing that the refining process will come later. Yes, there will be some tweaking, but not to the story itself, only how to convey the point. It doesn’t matter if it is an email, a social media post, a blog post or something else, it’s time to be ourselves, all of us! Now, over to you, do you find yourself caught in the web of self-editing? How do you navigate this delicate balance between refinement and creative freedom? Hit reply and share your thoughts and experiences. Warmest wishes, Natalie