I  have wasted 3 days.  Okay, so maybe I didn't TOTALLY waste them if I've finally realized how dreadfully off-track I am.  

I am a perfectionist.  This is not a good thing if I want to be a successful internet marketer.  THIS IS NOT A GOOD THING.

In my former life, my perfectionist tendencies were indeed a good thing.  I had to write policies and procedures as part of my job.  I documented process.  Every little thing, every sentence, every implication had to be in legal compliance.  Processes had to be Sarbanes-Oxley compliant.  (For those of you who are lucky enough to never have to worry about the dreaded Sarbanes-Oxley Act (a/k/a SOX) forget I said anything and just think about trying to get things done while handcuffed.)

My point is that there's a time and a place for everything.  And now is not the time and article marketing is not the place to be a perfectionist.  Nor is it necessary.  

 Why not?  Because it's okay not to be a perfect writer.  It's okay not to be Hemingway or Poe or Bronte.  It's even okay not to be Stephen King. It's okay to just say it and move on.   It doesn't have to be PERFECT.  It's okay to write like I talk (to a certain degree)  :)

I just spent three days on ONE ARTICLE.  It wasn't eloquent enough.  It wasn't intelligent-sounding enough.   It just wasn't GOOD ENOUGH.  

I became paralyzed.  Completely, totally paralyzed. 

I was too frozen to do anything except read and re-read one stinkin' article a hundred thousand times and make so many corrections and edits that what I ended up with - well, it's pretty much the same as what I started out with.

And then I had someone else read it.  They loved it.  I kinda loved it too.  I guess I loved it from the beginning but I thought it "should" be better.  

So, I shed a few tears of frustration this morning.  Asked myself WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU WOMAN...  and logged on to WA.  I hadn't really been hanging in here much this week. So I read a few things and got some comfort that I'm not the only fool that spent way too much time on one article.  In fact, I found some pretty cool motivators here... well duh... that's what WA is for isn't it?  It's like going to internet marketing therapy only it doesn't cost $125 per hour. 

Anyway, I'm back on track.  I'm going to write some articles today and I'm going to set the timer.  And I'm going to experiment with publishing some quick and authentic articles that didn't take any time... and compare them to this single ridiculous article that took me 3 days.  And see what happens.

 [sigh] 

Back to work.