Have you ever felt like your first draft needed to be perfect? Or have you ever suffered from paralysis of analysis? Break free from the perfectionism trap!
In this episode of our Breakthrough series, CJ and I are going to help you as Kingdom Writers overcome this obstacle of perfectionism. What makes this series different than most training for writers is that we integrate the powerful combination of Scripture and prayer to help you breakthrough the obstacles holding you back.
Interact with us as you watch the video here.
Prefer YouTube? Watch on YouTube here.
Prefer podcasts? Listen on iTunes here.
Notes from this episode:
Scripture: “Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.” Ecclesiastes 11:4
- Are you holding yourself to an impossible standard? Because the first draft is never the final draft. The middle drafts are never the final draft. Only the final draft is the final draft.
- Reality is we are imperfect humans in an imperfect world. But we serve a Perfect God who can more than make up the distance of where we fall short
- Adjust our expectations off of perfection and onto progress
- There is grace for the days we get stuck or don’t meet our goals
- “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made PERFECT in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV
- God loves you unconditionally, as you are and not as you should be because nobody is as they should be. -Brennan Manning
- Remove all the pressure, weight, and guilt associated with all the layers involved with writing your story to share it with the world.
- The root of perfectionism could be controlled. When we simply put ourselves in the hands of God, He can do more than we imagine. Being “control freaks” leads to anxiety
- “How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?” – Galatians 3:3 NLT
- This verse in Galatians gets to the core of our problem. Our efforts for perfection come from our own flesh
- People are craving authenticity over perfection
- If we’re perfect, we no longer have a need for growth.
- The Bible is full of mistakes…mistakes like Abraham, Moses, David, Rahab, Peter, Mary Magdalene, Paul, and more. But God used them in wonderful ways. And He’ll use you and me, mistakes and all.
Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)
The truth:
“Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.” Ecclesiastes 11:4
Prayer to Break Free from the Perfectionism Trap
Transcript of the prayer:
This next one, the seventh area that can be an obstacle that we want a breakthrough can be connected to procrastination. And that is perfectionism. This can actually can be a root of procrastination.
What we mean is that my first draft needs to be perfect. We have paralysis of analysis. Keep looking over the details and it’s just not quite right. Or we want perfection instead of a working piece that continues to be refined.
That’s really what those first drafts are all about. You just write it out, get that stuff out of your heart, and your mind. Get it on paper, on your computer, whatever method you use. Then after that, we can go back. Nobody’s first draft is very pretty. Even the Stephen Kings of the world need to refine that first draft.
We want to pray along the lines of Ecclesiastes 11:4. “Farmers who wait for perfect weather, never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.”
Lord, we don’t want to be farmers or writers who are always waiting for the perfect conditions. We know that we live in an imperfect world and yet You somehow take our imperfections. You do wonders with those things that we would have never even imagined.
So, Lord, I want to pray against a spirit of perfectionism that sometimes paralyzes and prevents us from really moving forward. This idea that unless I can do something perfectly or I can’t go any further. I pray that we wouldn’t be afraid to throw our sloppiness out there and then allow the process of refining to take place.
I pray that even if people have to start dumping stuff on paper in all kinds of jumbled ways before going back and rearranging some of those thoughts. They’d be able to look at that paper as a glorious work of art in the process. Not as something that has to be perfect right now.
I’m praying this for myself, as many times that has been a connector to procrastination and wanting to be perfect. I pray that we people would be instruments in your hands. Even though we’re imperfect, we are perfected in Christ and in your hands.
We know you can do wonders in our lives. And things that we’d never be able to do on our own. So, we thank you for this in Jesus’ name.
The picture I got was of a transformer toy. I sense that many of you have a certain expectation of what your first draft should be. Or of what your final draft should be.
You have a perspective that your first draft needs to be perfect and God right now wants to transform that expectation into something completely different. Just like a transformer toy, maybe a car and then it’s a person. God wants to transform our mind and our expectations by changing the way we see things.
Lord, take the pressure off. There is no pressure in Jesus’ name.
This is a privilege to be able to write. It’s a privilege to be able to share what God has given us. To share our gifts with the world.
Lord, I pray right now that there would be clip after clip after clip after clip after clip of you transforming expectations and perspectives. So that whole lie of perfectionism just falls away. And it’s not even an issue anymore in Jesus’ name, amen.
Free Download: 15 Prayers for Christian Writers
Download the PDF transcript of all 15 Prayers for Christian Writers, here:
https://www.trainingauthors.com/breakthrough/
Share Your Breakthroughs
Share what impacted you from this post and any breakthroughs God gave you as a result in the comments below.
Leave a Reply