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I have this friend who is a hoarder of unfinished projects. They all sound great. And she's a smart, talented, creative person. She just...never finishes. Or rather, she's never done. I'm sure when she finishes the book she's been researching and working on (or not working on) for 15 years it will be perfect. But the problem is, she will never, ever be done with it. The problem with perfectionism and procrastination is that they often look very similar, and perfectionism can be a sly fox. You think you're getting something done just right only to realize, 15 years later, you never got anything done. And procrastination can be a shield: "The world will never be able to reject this work as un-genius, because they will never see it, the suckers!"

Catherine Shefski was one such perfectionist-procrastinator. An accomplished pianist, she realized that amidst teaching piano and living her life, she was overlooking her own piano playing. So she decided to start recording one piece of music every week, calling her project Go Play. The results are lovely bits of music (what is it about solo piano that always sounds so haunting, so perfectly happy-sad?) -- and to this (admittedly very untrained) ear, they sound, well, perfect. Shefski chronicles the process on her blog, where she's noted how nervous it makes her to post these songs, which are sometimes, surprise, just not as perfect as she wants. As she writes in one post, "It took a lot of will power this morning not to do 'just one more' recording of this Scarlatti Sonata...  My goal was to finally learn this piece, since I’ve loved it for years. It’s not difficult by any means, but I’m never totally satisfied with the opening ornaments ...But there it is. I did it. It’s the best it is right now. And I’m putting it out there. I’m letting it go." The way Shefksi writes about playing piano makes me believe I love playing piano too, even though I've never mastered much beyond Chopsticks on a toy keyboard. But she loves what she does. And now, with this project, she is actually doing it.

You hear that, procrastinator-perfectionists? Put it out there. Let it go. And play.

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