Tool For Tuesday: Let The Show Begin

“The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready; it goes on because it’s 11:30,” said Lorne Michaels, creator of “Saturday Night Live.”

I was thinking about that as I struggled to make the final touches on The Mom Who Took Off On Her Motorcycle. I want it to be as good as it can get but I have reached the point where I feel like I’m just treading in old water.

I begged my friend to give me a deadline to finish the dang thing. “Are you editing it out of existence?” asked my friend Jane. “I took a journalism course with Karl Grossman and he said the magic words that got me to stop doing that. He told us that we were already good writers and that we should go with our first draft. Now there’s a revolutionary thought! No other professor ever said such a thing. But, Grossman is right.”

Sometimes we don’t know when to stop. Sometimes we can rehearse so much that the curtain never rises on the stage. We have to let go of perfectionism and launch.

Are you over-doing something rather than letting it go? Is perfectionism or fear standing in your way? This isn’t only about writing or editing, it’s about living our best chapter. We’re not always ready to do the things we’re supposed to do. But we have to do them.

The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready. It goes on because it’s 11:30.

About dianabletter

Diana Bletter is the author of several books, including The Invisible Thread: A Portrait of Jewish American Women (with photographs by Lori Grinker), shortlisted for a National Jewish Book Award. Her novel, A Remarkable Kindness, (HarperCollins) was published in 2015. She is the First Prize Winner of Moment Magazine's 2019 Fiction Contest. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, tabletmag, Glamour, The Forward, The North American Review, Times of Israel, and is a reporter for Israel21C, and many other publications. She is author of Big Up Yourself: It's About Time You Like Being You and The Mom Who Took off On Her Motorcycle, a memoir of her 10,000-mile motorcycle trip to Alaska and back to New York. She lives in a small beach village in Western Galilee, Israel, with her husband and family. She is a member of the local hevra kadisha, the burial circle, and a Muslim-Jewish-Christian-Druze women's group in the nearby town of Akko. And, she likes snowboarding and climbing trees.

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7 Responses to Tool For Tuesday: Let The Show Begin

stuartart says:

November 20, 2012 at 5:54 am

So true, perfectionism is the enemy of action.

- dianabletter says:
  
  November 20, 2012 at 6:00 am
  
  Thank you, Stuart! I like that.
  
Tracy Campbell says:

November 20, 2012 at 8:42 am

Hi Diana,
I’m always over-doing something, rather than letting it go. As much as I’d like to say it’s because I’m a perfectionist…it’s not. It’s that thing one calls fear. Fear of failure or fear of success.
Tracy

- dianabletter says:
  
  November 20, 2012 at 9:02 am
  
  Hi Tracy, Thank you for your comment. You are right–trying to make something perfect prevents us from moving on…
  
Marylin Warner says:

November 20, 2012 at 9:02 pm

I’m like Tracy, only it’s never fear of success…
Another goo reminder of what’s important.

- dianabletter says:
  
  November 25, 2012 at 3:33 am
  
  Thanks, Marylin! We can’t let our fear get in the way of completing the work.
  
- Tracy Campbell says:
  
  November 25, 2012 at 6:49 pm
  
  Hi Marylin,
  Good to see you again, LOL.
  You’ll have to teach me how to get over fear of success! 😀
  Hi Diana!