INFJ personality types tend to struggle with perfectionism, especially INFJ writers. When we struggle with perfectionism, we want to do everything perfectly, not only to satisfy our own inner critic but also to prevent others from judging us negatively.
The fear of negative judgment from others can affect our entire life. Why is this such a problem for some of us? Because it’s not just a worry, it’s an addiction to approval. This affects our writing, our creativity, and our entire lives.
Perfectionism is one of the biggest problems that writers struggle with on a regular basis. And most writers tend to blame themselves for this problem. We often see perfectionism as a character flaw, or a bad habit that we need to conquer. But what most writers don’t know is that perfectionism is neither of these things.
When you suffer from perfectionism at a deep level, what you’re really struggling with is anxiety, and much of the time, that anxiety is out of your control. It is not something to be conquered or battled.
Whenever I talk to writers about how anxiety shows up during the writing process, I usually ask them if they’re experiencing the most anxiety during the first draft stage, the editing stage, or the stage where they begin to share their writing with other people. And always, quite a few writers tell me that they experience the most anxiety before they even start ANY of the stages. It’s when they are thinking about beginning a writing project, or pushing themselves to actually sit down and do it, that they feel the most freaked out.
This strong, underlying anxiety about the writing process is rooted in perfectionism, and it causes writers to self-sabotage their writing goals before they even begin.