perfectionism – Anne Whitmore

9 May 2011

Practice makes perfect???

Ever listened to a little kid practicing the piano?

I remember diligently (OK, that is a rosy reflection. Begrudgingly…) doing my 30 minutes of practice a day. Well, most days. I would play the same song – usually as fast as my fingers would go – until the timer beeped and I bolted off the piano bench to play or read or whatever.

The thing about practicing the same thing over and over is that sometimes I would learn a song and learn one note incorrectly or with a weird rhythm. But I wasn’t able to hear the part that clunked. I bet my neighbors did, though!

1 Nov 2010

Getting back on the blog wagon

by Anne | posted in: Divafish Communications, Marketing, Social media | 0

*They* say it takes 30 days to start a new habit. I must admit that it took less than 30 days for good intentions to be displaced by other things that had hard deadlines, were more exciting or were standing right in front of me. Moving and renovating this summer didn’t help… and then I felt so behind in posting that it was easy to get stuck in not restarting.

I have realized (through working with my amazing coach) that I tend to be pretty hard on myself. I have an idea in my head of what I should be doing and sometimes beat myself up about not getting there. The thing about perfectionism is that it takes my professionalism and dedication to excellence and stops me in my tracks. So instead of getting mostly what I want done, I will start lagging behind. Seriously. Check the date of my last post…

11 Jun 2010

The invitation is forward…

by Anne | posted in: Uncategorized | 0

A couple years ago, I went to an Argentinian Tango workshop with my good friend Zanna. The instructor was direct from Argentina and had a wonderful sense of humor. He must have – because he picked me to help demonstrate some basics. I was a very beginning beginner and don’t know what I was thinking. I managed to make it through the basic and then it happened— he lead a move I didn’t know. He stopped and said, “The invitation was forward.” The group chuckled. Take 2 – he lead the same move and obviously I didn’t get it because he stopped and said again, “The invitation was forward.” I felt frustrated and foolish and said that I was confused. He told me to stop thinking and to close my eyes and feel the lead. He lead the move again and this time, my leg did a fancy little flick behind the other one. I’m still not quite sure how that happened but I remember that feeling of letting go and listening with my heart and body without overthinking.