TME Tuesday: Fighting My Perfectionistic Tendencies to Create

TME Tuesdays: Box with abstract background design including the following text: www.musictherapyworks.com; TME Tuesdays.
It is TME Tuesday again, and I am going to head to work - reluctantly because my bed is more inviting than the thought of leaving it to go to be around other people. That is typical for me. I like sleeping so much more than working, but working is what I need to do in order to have a bed to sleep in, so I will haul my body to my car for a day of work. (I blame President's Day for this malaise this week - I HATE Monday holidays!) I will go reluctantly into this work week. Tomorrow is a 12-hour day at work - full day of work with kids and then additional professional development after school. I have to leave early because I have my Wednesday night job to get to, but I am hoping that it will be "work on your own" time that I will make up. Anyway, today is the first work day of the week.

I have about 10 minutes to write this before my time anxiety will take over and make me jumpy.

That brings me to today's topic - overcoming my tendencies to not do something because I am not sure I can do it perfectly. Does anyone else have this situation going on? I call this my "perfectionistic tendencies." Side note - I might need a picture for these tendencies like I have a picture for one of my goblins.

Here's how my tendencies go when it is time to write a new TME. (Right now, these things are complicated because I cannot play my guitar yet.)

  1. Sit down and decide that it is time to write a therapeutic music experience (TME - my term for the things I do in sessions with my clients)
  2. Open up my TME jumpdrive and go to the Ideas for Development folder.
  3. Open up my Ideas book and flip through pages until I see something interesting.
  4. Think about not being able to wrote something that makes sense.
  5. Stress about wanting to make things perfect.
  6. Sit and stare at the computer while thoughts flit in and out of my head.
  7. Look at the time and realize that I've wasted so much time that I have to go do something else.
I spend lots of time just sitting and staring at my computer screen, wasting time thinking that anything I produce will not be up to my standards that it is ridiculous. When I go to work today, I have an extra hour of time without students before my therapy day begins. I am going to write a song using my chance composition technique - dice. They will help me create something to write down. I hope to have a new song done by the end of that hour.

Time to head out into the cold with the promise of warm temperatures this afternoon. It is hard to dress for a day that has a 50 degree difference between morning and afternoon, but that is my current reality so off I go!

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