No one becomes perfect, but some become great

Hello everyone!

I have been at CSPR twice a week for the past 8 weeks and have only got a couple of more days up my sleeve before my 20 days are up. I have certainly learned a lot, but one of the biggest things that I have learned is that no-one is perfect.

All my life, I have been my biggest critic. I place a certain expectation upon myself to be good at everything I do - the first time. I'm a perfectionist. Some might say this is a good trait, but personally I think it is a trait I could do without. When I don't do something right I get down on myself. Does that sound familiar? Somehow I don’t think I’m alone. I think that in order to get ahead in the Public Relations field, I ( and possible many others) need to realise that no-one is perfect and neither am I.

Case in point, I was asked to write a piece on Symphony of Sunflowers for the Therapy Focus newsletter last week. I really wanted to do well and impress my supervisor as this was the first real chance I got to show her my writing skills. Biting at the bullet, I typed furiously on the keyboard, hoping I could articulate the ideas in my head into something magical on the page. When I was done I read over it a thousand times trying to work out ways to make it better. Here I was writing for a newsletter that I had never read, with a 250 word limit on something that you could write pages on. I handed it to Christine and waited anxiously for her response.

I’ll admit I was a disheartened when I received my piece of paper back with scribbles and notes all over the page. I felt deflated, but as Christine sat me down and told me the areas that needed to be improved, I realised that it was no big deal and that I really wasn’t perfect. Such an exercise made me realise that there will be copious amounts of times over my career that ill write something that wont be right the first time or maybe even the second time. It won’t mean I’m useless. It won’t mean my writing is rubbish. It just might mean that what my superior had in mind might have been a little different. I’ll make changes and I’ll learn something at the same time.

If there is something we can all take with us on journey into professional PR practice, it’s not to take things too personally. If you’re like me and like to get things right the first time, then wake up and smell the coffee beans, because we are buttering ourselves up for a lot of disappointment. We are fresh and learning, but even hardened professionals with years of experience behind them get things wrong and even my supervisor, with over 20 years experience, admitted that. Everything is a learning curve and from now on I have promised that I won’t get down on myself. I’m looking forward to evolving and learning from my mistakes to become a better public relations practitioner! I hope you do too!!! :)

Take care all.
Nicole