The enneagram pivot is so subtle and puts the whole tension you describe in a nutshell! Here to say it didn’t go unnoticed ;) another great read, I look forward to the next
Well, I feel like you were writing about me and the part about having a decade (plus) of material and no body of work, well, that is the truth. I appreciate so much the challenge you offer and felt like you were aimed squarely at me and my tendencies. My name, also, is Andy. Thanks for the push.
That’s nice to hear. Funny that your name is Andy. It might be a sign haha. Andy is really part alter ego and part what I have seen in the people I work with.
Holy, shit. Finally, an article where I feel heard and held. A box I don’t have to squeeze myself into, because, I’m a circle. Not a square. I have been stuck in a ‘creative sabbatical’ for years now and I cannot find my way back to art, and it’s hurting me. The drafts are piling and I am drowning in them because I’m afraid. Thank you for this.
Man. This is why people need religion again. It’s not good for us to throw all our hopes and dreams at the economy and then have a meltdown when we don’t all become millionaires…
Yes that’s a pretty sharp observation. I’m not sure if it possible though. I have been thinking about this a lot and maybe religion was just a transitory stage. I might write an article about this.
Thank you for this piece, Philipp. I know the Perfectionist well, he lives in me too.
What touched me most was this line: "There is no crowd to protect you. You have to stand fully by yourself, and that's pretty scary." That was the turning point for me. I turned the fear into a piece of my own. Now I'm learning to let it go, without expectation and without wanting to correct it afterwards. The only thing that's safe for me now: there's no way back to safety, neither when I send something out nor afterwards. Without your article, it might not have happened.
Thought provoking as usual. Made me think of that train story, the incontrollable one moving at high speed, with the people in the front fighting over what to do, the people at the back trying to understand what happened, and the people in between with their heads down. Or something like that...
So true: Perfectionist and Artist. There is a constant battle between the two. Sometimes one wins , sometimes the other. And often this is another form of stagnation, or a truce, where nothing much changes.
I'm in the process, or I think I am in the process, or at least it feels that way, where the Artist is taking the throne more often now, and asserting a new law over the land, though the Perfectionist doesn't like it very much.
I feel like im a lot of Andy. The perfectionist thing tickles me, because I really appreciate what a NBA player once said, "Chase perfection understanding you'll never achive it. Most dont even try". Do you have any advice about this phrase? Im Trying to find if this is hindering me in a way i might not be seeing. but it feels like a good gaurd rail. I appreciate your art.
I did a search on your quote and I got the following from Kobe Bryant:
"I was chasing perfection and excellence, even though I knew I will probably never catch it. But just the fact I was willing to chase it, I would defeat and dominate most of my opponents because most of my opponents would never chase something that didn't have any guarantees attached to it."
I related to the title immediately before even reading the article.
The enneagram pivot is so subtle and puts the whole tension you describe in a nutshell! Here to say it didn’t go unnoticed ;) another great read, I look forward to the next
Nice to see that someone noticed it.
Thank you very much for this article. As a restless soul, this spoke to me in many ways.
"The gurus like to say you have left the matrix."
So true, and hard not to see for a lot of people when we're really just trading one system for another.
Yo these titles and subtitles are fire
I literally had to take a pen to paper to write down every single fiction idea I’ve had in the past ten years cause I was feeling too overwhelmed
Well, I feel like you were writing about me and the part about having a decade (plus) of material and no body of work, well, that is the truth. I appreciate so much the challenge you offer and felt like you were aimed squarely at me and my tendencies. My name, also, is Andy. Thanks for the push.
That’s nice to hear. Funny that your name is Andy. It might be a sign haha. Andy is really part alter ego and part what I have seen in the people I work with.
Difficult to read but for all the right reasons. ❤️
Holy, shit. Finally, an article where I feel heard and held. A box I don’t have to squeeze myself into, because, I’m a circle. Not a square. I have been stuck in a ‘creative sabbatical’ for years now and I cannot find my way back to art, and it’s hurting me. The drafts are piling and I am drowning in them because I’m afraid. Thank you for this.
Be a circle. We need circles in a world of squares. Circles unite.
Man. This is why people need religion again. It’s not good for us to throw all our hopes and dreams at the economy and then have a meltdown when we don’t all become millionaires…
Yes that’s a pretty sharp observation. I’m not sure if it possible though. I have been thinking about this a lot and maybe religion was just a transitory stage. I might write an article about this.
Excellent article
Thank you for this piece, Philipp. I know the Perfectionist well, he lives in me too.
What touched me most was this line: "There is no crowd to protect you. You have to stand fully by yourself, and that's pretty scary." That was the turning point for me. I turned the fear into a piece of my own. Now I'm learning to let it go, without expectation and without wanting to correct it afterwards. The only thing that's safe for me now: there's no way back to safety, neither when I send something out nor afterwards. Without your article, it might not have happened.
https://letters.dirkottenheym.com/p/434
Thought provoking as usual. Made me think of that train story, the incontrollable one moving at high speed, with the people in the front fighting over what to do, the people at the back trying to understand what happened, and the people in between with their heads down. Or something like that...
So true: Perfectionist and Artist. There is a constant battle between the two. Sometimes one wins , sometimes the other. And often this is another form of stagnation, or a truce, where nothing much changes.
I'm in the process, or I think I am in the process, or at least it feels that way, where the Artist is taking the throne more often now, and asserting a new law over the land, though the Perfectionist doesn't like it very much.
I feel like im a lot of Andy. The perfectionist thing tickles me, because I really appreciate what a NBA player once said, "Chase perfection understanding you'll never achive it. Most dont even try". Do you have any advice about this phrase? Im Trying to find if this is hindering me in a way i might not be seeing. but it feels like a good gaurd rail. I appreciate your art.
I did a search on your quote and I got the following from Kobe Bryant:
"I was chasing perfection and excellence, even though I knew I will probably never catch it. But just the fact I was willing to chase it, I would defeat and dominate most of my opponents because most of my opponents would never chase something that didn't have any guarantees attached to it."
Watch him play, those words are backed by action.
Thanks for kicking me in my nonexistant nutsack i appreciate it.