Some of the best advice I ever heard wasn’t even directed at me.
I was busy setting up for an event at work when I overheard two senior employees talking amongst each other.
“My motto for getting things done is GEPO,” mused one of the workers. “Good Enough, Push On.”
How’s that for actionable writing advice?! In the corporate world, the business acronym GEPO is used to remind employees not to get bogged down on perfectionism in a project, and just to focus on producing a deliverable, on time and (hopefully) under budget.
Perfection is the enemy of done, both in business and in writing. There are so many times we think we have the perfect idea in our brains and we want to get that same perfection onto the screen or onto the page.
But it’s just not going to happen. Instead of the beautiful, written work of art, all we’re going to pull out is an ugly lump of clay.
But it is important to get all of that lump out to play with, for that is our creative foundation. How else can you eventually form that clay into the beautiful stone sculpture that others will stop and admire?
Let me stop being metaphorical for a moment and get to the heart of the matter.
If you are a writer, you’re never going to achieve perfection out the gates. Instead, strive to create the best possible product you can, and move on to the next project. Here’s how to say “good enough, push on” to your writing for better results:
- Set Expectations
- Don’t edit until completion
- Set an end date
Plan where you want to arrive in your writing. When it comes to writing, it’s better to be a planner than a pantser. A planner outlines their story, devising a beginning, middle, and an end. The final product may not look like what they had initially intended, but at least the blueprint offered guidance on where the story needed to be.
A pantser, on the other hand, is the type of individual with an amazing idea but has absolutely no idea how to bring it all together. They’re the type of person on Wattpad who will write a 50+ chapter neverending story, or constantly edit chapters after pressing ‘Publish’ so that their tale never really gets off the ground.
It’s like with this very post. I can delay publishing, and continue to write and edit until it is exactly how I envisioned it to be in my mind.
Or I can post my thoughts as is, crudely filtered but hopefully still getting the key message accross.
I GEPO’d my way through this week’s post. In a way it’s all about confidence: I have to believe that my writing is “Good Enough” to affect other people’s thinking. Only then can I move on to bigger and better writing projects.
So what are your thoughts? Have you ever heard of GEPO? Are you a perfectionist in how you conduct yourself and your life? And can you think of any instances where perfection is mandatory for success? (I think the ‘Jiro Dreams of Sushi’ guy is probably a good example). Let me know in the comments!