Stephen Dorff talked in a recent interview about working in Sofia Coppola’s movie “Somewhere” with much less of all of those.

Moviefone Blog: There’s hardly any dialogue in this script. Isn’t it tough to sell a script like this to an actor? Don’t actors like a lot of dialogue?

Stephen Dorff: It’s not tough for me! I looked at it and I said, ‘I’d be crazy not to accept this.’

I felt I understood all this stuff. I thought Sofia really got the acting thing down, as far as the loneliness and the emptiness that can happen.

As an actor you get so much attention. People need you, need you, need you, and the junkets, and then it just ends.

And you’re kind of sitting in your house or in your hotel room wondering what the hell do I do now?

I had a lot of questions. I wanted to understand.

Sofia doesn’t really need to necessarily write everything out, because she knows the film she wants to make.

I just loved that it was a character piece. There was time to get to know someone. The trend today is everything but that. It’s always moving so fast you don’t get to know anybody.

Moviefone Blog: Or it’s all explained, or over-explained.

Stephen Dorff: Or exposition. I did ‘Public Enemies.’ I was really happy to be cast in that, working with Johnny Depp. We worked six months on that, and then in the final cut, I liked the movie, but you don’t get to know any of these people.

It’s such a blur. You don’t even get to know Johnny’s character. This was so refreshing. It was like a 1970s movie. …

Being directed by Sofia is incredible. As an actor there’s a lot of cheats you can do. It was the most raw I’ve ever been. It was just me.

Sofia Coppola: You couldn’t hide behind anything.

Stephen Dorff: I find mimicking and accents and makeup the easiest kind of acting to do. Some people would be like, ‘how did he do that?’ That’s easy. You can turn me into a woman, give me some heels, I can do that. I can find the voice, etc.

But just sit me on the sofa? If I’m acting at all in those scenes, it unravels the movie that she wants to make. So it was trying to find this unconscious quality.

I think the intimacy that she brought by picking this small, special crew, by letting me live at the Chateau, by making it so easy for me… all these cool rehearsal exercises without over-rehearsing.

We weren’t blocking scenes. We were rehearsing more an energy and a feeling of comfort between me and Elle [Fanning] or me and these different characters.

From Interview: Sofia Coppola and Stephen Dorff on Visiting ‘Somewhere’, By Jeffrey M. Anderson, The Moviefone Blog.

> Also see post: Sofia Coppola on being a “dilettante” and enhancing creativity

Many creative people report feeling incompetent, inadequate and having low self esteem or self-regard at times. But there are ways to shift those feelings.

A number of film actors report they don’t even watch their own movies.

When you can be seen in close-ups on twenty foot high theater screens, it may be especially hard not to criticize your appearance and performance.

That sort of criticism may be based on perfectionism, but also can be related to poor self-concept or fraud feelings.

Kate Winslet has admitted that before going off to a movie shoot, she sometimes thinks, “I’m a fraud, and they’re going to fire me… I’m fat; I’m ugly; I look like a whore! [laughs] [Interview mag., Nov, 2000]

[From my article Being Creative and Self-critical.]

Reese Witherspoon says, “I have absolute amnesia about every movie I have ever made. I won’t watch them because if I did I would spiral into a state of self-hate…” [wenn.com 21 Dec 2010]

Bill Nighy has commented, “You come to realise there is this huge disparity between what you think about yourself and your work and what other people think about you and your work, at first you either think they’re insane or that it’s a conspiracy to make you look stupid. Or maybe, just maybe, they’re right, and you’re sometimes quite good at what you do.”

Even someone as accomplished as Meryl Streep admits she has “varying degrees of confidence and self-loathing…. You can have a perfectly horrible day where you doubt your talent. It could be about not feeling able to achieve a certain scene or about an emotion you feel you weren’t able to get to… Or that you’re boring and they’re going to find out that you don’t know what you’re doing… any one of those things.”

[From the page Self-esteem / Self concept - which has a number of other quotes by actors.]

So what can you do about low self-esteem or self-confidence as an actor?

Developing yourself as a person and an actor, taking classes, getting into commercials or community theater or any performance work can help feelings of low self-esteem.

There are specific products and programs that can help.

The Self-Esteem Supercharger, a CD program from Learning Strategies can help enhance confidence.

According to the site, “Many professional and recreational athletes have found listening to the Self-Esteem Supercharger before a game or match improves their performance.”

Professional soccer player Michael Cestone says, “I had tried subliminal tapes with limited results, so I had to try the Paraliminals because they were different. I was desperately looking for something to help me prepare for the season. I noticed results immediately.

“The first time I used the tape I felt more focused and was able to read the game better, as well as make faster decisions. That was only the beginning.”

Learn more about The Self-Esteem Supercharger and other items in the section:
Self concept / self esteem Products and Programs.

> Also read more (and see video by Jack Canfield) about the Natural Confidence program by Morty Lefkoe.

Also see post: Impostor phenomenon: Gerard Butler – “Have I ever thought I was a fraud? Maybe 18 hours a day.”

Also see post: Building self-confidence: changing limiting beliefs and helping others.

~~

dealing with self-criticism, building self confidence, self esteem confidence, building self esteem, impostor feelings

In her new memoir Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain, Portia de Rossi writes about a dark side of pursuing a “perfect” look.

“Anorexia was my first love. I didn’t decide to become anorexic. It snuck up on me disguised as a healthy diet, a professional attitude. Being as thin as possible was a way to make the job of being an actress easier . . .”

From the book summary: “Portia de Rossi weighed only 82 pounds when she collapsed on the set of the Hollywood film in which she was playing her first leading role.

“This should have been the culmination of all her years of hard work—first as a child model in Australia, then as a cast member of one of the hottest shows on American television. On the outside she was thin and blond, glamorous and successful. On the inside, she was literally dying.”

Here is a video of her recent appearance on The Ellen Show:

~~

Toni Collette provides more perspectives:

“I don’t understand why you have to look like a model to be a successful actor, what a character looks like is an extension of what they feel,” she says. “This is going to sound offensive, but for female actors there is a uniform of being you are meant to aspire to.

“There’s this new batch of younger women who all look the same: the same rail thin body, the same blond hair – it’s like they all go to the same hairdresser. It’s kind of scary, and not the kind of image you should be putting out.

“What audiences and I respond to is what you can’t see, what can’t be fully explained. What’s between the lines, unseen.” [Los Angeles Times, January 29, 2006]

Not that a lot of us don’t appreciate thin blond women – particularly those with acting talent, depth and passion – but thankfully there are women in film and television with other body types equally as appealing.

My related article: Body Image and Creative Expression.

Related post: Building identity – Naomi Watts on the struggle for integrity

~~

Toni Collette, Portia de Rossi, acting and image, female stereotypes in Hollywood, perfectionism and eating disorders, perfectionism and mental health, perfectionism and self concept, body image obsession

“Because I’m in a lot of movies right now or am on the covers of magazines? I just hope there is something solid behind that.

“Because here’s the thing with ‘it girl’ status. It’s great and amazing that anybody is saying that at all. But how long does that last? I would like to establish myself. I don’t want to just have a moment.”

The article continued,

She admitted that she worries about the way she looks. And because she speaks often candidly to journalists, sharing tidbits about her life that her handlers might consider too personal (like the fact that she takes the anti-anxiety medication Lexapro), she said that she often has others minding her words.

[Lexapro is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) approved for major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, or panic disorder.]

“Oh, I’m always being briefed by a publicist before I have [interviews],” she said, twirling her braided hair around with her fingers. “They’re like, ‘Come on, you can’t be self-deprecating.’ ”

But that’s just who she is, said Atom Egoyan, who directed “Chloe” … “She’s very self critical. After I would say cut, she always had this expression of frustration, like she didn’t quite get it. But I found that quite endearing, because she’s always feeling there’s more she can do to capture or enhance or clarify.”

[From Amanda Seyfried in full bloom, By Amy Kaufman, Los Angeles Times, May 15, 2010]

~~~

Dealing with anxiety

Like many other creative people, actors may experience anxiety.

Energy psychiatrist Judith Orloff M.D. works with many actors, to help them deal with stage fright or other forms of anxiety. In her book Emotional Freedom, she suggests a number of strategies, including supplements and meditation, and “avoiding caffeine and other stimulants, excessive sugar, and violent newscasts and films.”

For some of her clients, she does prescribe Inderal, at least temporarily – a medication to reduce stage fright by decreasing the fight or flight response.

In my interview with Dr. Orloff, she says, “a better way is that I teach everyone to do a three minute mini-meditation where they learn how to breathe, center themselves, let their thoughts flow by, and focus on something really nurturing and positive, which is a better way, I believe, to learn how to shift your anxiety and really own the moment.”

Also see my site Anxiety Relief Solutions – Multiple drug-free self-help products and programs to relieve social anxiety, stage fright, performance anxiety and other forms of anxiety.

Being self-critical

James Earl Jones says, “I think self-criticism is sort of a given when you’re an actor. It’s also about being curious and not being flippant. Anyone who accepts being in this noble profession is automatically self-critical.”

From post James Earl Jones – being an actor is fun, but you’re self-critical

As I note in my article Being Creative and Self-critical: Healthy criticism can help refine our talents and creative projects in the pursuit of excellence. But when it is based on a excessive perfectionism or an unrealistic self concept, criticism can be destructive and self-limiting, eroding our creative assurance and vitality.

Being self-deprecating can be related to unhealthy self-esteem or feeling like a fraud, and self-criticism can be based in perfectionism.

I’m not saying Amanda Seyfried has any of those issues – but many very talented actors (and other artists) do.

creative anxiety, creativity and anxiety, stress and creativity, anxiety and artistic expression, artists and anxiety, artists and self-criticism

After spending the greater part of my life as an actress and performer, I became a therapist in early 2007.

While I still do a little bit of acting when I have a chance, I now mainly spend my time helping other people to fulfill their creative ambitions or to just learn how to be happier.

The interesting thing to me is how valuable my years as a performer have been in helping others with their issues.

There were things I learned as a young actress years ago that have been incredibly helpful to me throughout my life, many of which I can pass on to my clients.

For example, I had a wonderful voice teacher at drama school, who turned out to be so much more than just a voice teacher and who eventually became a lifelong friend – Mary.

One of the things she used to say was “use it, darling, use it” whenever I was experiencing a strong emotion, particularly something uncomfortable.

What she meant was, remember how it feels to be angry or grief-stricken, so that the next time you need to access that emotion for a role, you can bring it up and associate it to the event that precipitated the emotion.

The reason this is useful for my therapy clients is that I can demonstrate to them that it really is possible to control one’s own emotions – you don’t need to be an actor to do that, although actors get facile at doing it because emotions are their “stock in trade”.

Most ordinary people believe that emotions are something outside of their control, and yet if a person can learn to induce an emotion at will, they can also learn to let it go.

When you’re getting angry but you don’t want to have an outburst you count to ten – isn’t that an example of doing that?

Another exercise we learned at drama school that I’ve found useful later on relates to my own self-identity.

Mary recommended that we spend one day thinking of ourselves as beautiful and noticing how others responded to us. So I put my hair up and wore my best dress and rode around on the London Underground with this mantra in my mind, “I am beautiful, I am beautiful.”

To my amazement, my normally shy timid demeanor was replaced by an aura of confidence and poise and people literally stared at me and paid me a lot more positive attention than usual.

This demonstrates that your beliefs about yourself really do transmit themselves non-verbally and in very subtle ways, to others. Try it sometime!

By the way, I also tried this out in a different way, when I was part of an improvised Italian street theater. I was in my late twenties pretending to be an old “bag lady”, a deaf and dumb beggar who lived for scraps.

Again my perception of myself and my projection of what I believed myself to be got an appropriate response from the people around me – many of whom didn’t even realize that I was part of the street performance going on, and who thought I was the real thing.

Another trick that Mary taught me was, when something is uncomfortable, do it more. When you can accept totally a situation and become comfortable with it, the situation no longer holds any fears for you. That is the premise behind the expression: “What you resist persists but what you befriend will surely end”.

Although everybody is born with a certain predisposed temperament, you can also train yourself to develop a different and more effective personality.

For example, I was a very shy child and young adult. And yet I managed to train myself to be an extrovert.

It felt at first like a new coat that didn’t quite fit, but eventually one day this new persona felt like the real me. I remember how incredibly delighted I felt when my boyfriend’s mother remarked how she couldn’t imagine me being shy!

People tend to believe that their personality is something inevitable, that they cannot change. But in fact you’re personality is remarkably fluid and a lot of it is within your power to choose.

The personality, like the brain, is constantly changing throughout life, and that’s not a bad thing, in fact it’s a good thing for your personal growth.

I remember as a teenager feeling that I could be anybody I wanted to be, and to a large extent I was right.

The thing is, I can still be anybody I want to be.

If I start behaving radically differently of course the people closest to me will be surprised and possibly also discomfited and confused, but that is something I can choose to deal with, and they will eventually learn to accept the changes.

The fact is – and this is a fact – every one of the 50 trillion cells in the human body is discarded and replaced every seven years.

That means that we are literally a whole new human being every seven years. So if I want to recreate myself inside as well as outside, I can.

It may take some willpower and persistence to counter old habits, but it is possible.

The only thing that keeps us locked into our old personality, is the force of memory and habit. They say it takes 21 days to break a habit, so you have to stick with it. and believe it’s possible.

Have you ever looked at an old photograph of yourself and thought to yourself “that doesn’t feel like me, it’s as if I’m looking at another person”?

That’s because you literally are looking at another person, a person with a different set of 50 trillion cells. But your memory is the thread that binds you to the past.

Actors are very fortunate, because they are used to creating themselves anew – it’s what they do.

An actor knows how to use his emotions, channel his energy, take control of his body and mind.

~~~~~

Carmen Lynne is a long-time resident of Redondo Beach and an empathetic and inspiring group leader. She is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist and Guided Imagery Facilitator, who graduated from HMI in 2007, and a Certified Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Group Facilitator with the NACBT. She is currently studying for her MA in Psychology and plans to gain licensure as a Marriage and Family Therapist.

Carmen currently works in two chronic pain clinics as part of the therapeutic team: Comprehensive Pain Relief Group under Dr. Gregory Smith, MD in Redondo Beach and Care Center for Rehabilitation under Dr. Brenda Klass, PhD in Encino. Before becoming a therapist Carmen worked as an actress, singer, dancer, writer and producer.

Mind Over Mood groups

What does “Mind Over Mood” really mean? It means that your thoughts and emotions – which may feel like rebellious undisciplined children – can in fact, be controlled, with a few simple techniques and tools. Your skill and training as an actor makes you uniquely qualified to employ these very techniques. You do it all the time – you just need to learn how to do it in everyday life.

Mind Over Mood is a course that will literally train your brain. In the same way as physical training develops your muscles and makes you stronger and healthier, this kind of brain training makes you emotionally stronger and healthier by training your brain and giving you the power to control your thoughts and emotions.

If you’re afflicted by thoughts and emotions that hold you back and keep you from fulfilling your potential in any area of your life – here is your opportunity to change that. It’s like being handed the keys to your own power, the control of your own thoughts and emotions.

For more information about the Mind Over Mood groups, visit
www.newhealingjourneys.com

Article provided by the author.

~~~~~~~~

Related Talent Development Resources sites:

Depression and Creativity

Personal Growth Information

Nurturing mental health: acting – quotes, books etc

Also see Change, growth, coaching articles.

personal growth development, personal development, self growth, emotions and personal growth, acting and personal growth

What choices and compromises do you make to gain attention and opportunities as an actor?

Romola Garai has expressed a number of thoughtful perspectives on these topics. Here are some quotes from her imdb.com profile.

On Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights :

“I wouldn’t have done something that I thought had no merit in it at all, but I did experience a fall-out from being calculating about your career, believing that you should do something in order to get you somewhere else. It was just creatively unfulfiling.”

“The filmmakers were obsessed with having someone skinny. I just thought, why didn’t they get someone like Kate Bosworth, if that’s what they wanted? An actress like that wouldn’t worry about whether or not the political ideas were being sensitively or subtly dealt with. They’d do the job, smile and look pretty on the cover of Teen Vogue. There I am, 135 pounds and trying to make art! I was so wrong for it!”

”I had the time of my life. I have used every part of my body, plus muscles I did not know I had, because the dancing is a combination of salsa and Latin ballroom. It felt like daily aerobics.”

On the Vanity Fair premiere: “I [showed] my tits and teeth. I’m useless at it. About 40 per cent of success as an actor is now based on whether you’re good at being interviewed and how you conduct yourself. And I’m really bad at that.”

More on being an actor :

“When I was a child I always wanted to be funny and to please people in my family. As you grow up that instinct becomes more refined, but it’s still there. How can it not be? I just don’t believe you’re capable of being an actor unless you have a desire to experience your emotions in a public way.”

“It’s too simplistic to say that people start to believe what’s written about them. But what happens is that you become a certain way to please people, to be liked, to be what’s expected of you, to change yourself so that you become the best possible version of yourself for people who don’t know you.

“And I think that’s a terrible, pernicious thing.”

[Photo: Romola Garai as Emma Woodhouse in "Emma"]

acting performance, acting self esteem, acting passion, entertainment psychology, actors training, personal development for actors

Those quotes are from the article Ethan Hawke says ‘Daybreakers’ is no ‘Twilight’: ‘It’s a post-adolescent vampire film’ by Yvonne Villarreal [Los Angeles Times January 7, 2010].

Villarreal continues :

It’s a role [in "Daybreakers"] about as far as you can get from his Broadway gig performing a nine-hour stage trilogy of Tom Stoppard’s plays, “The Coast of Utopia,” about mid-19th century Russian radicals. And that’s what attracted him.

“There’s some kind of actors that can radically change who they are from movie to movie,” Hawke said. “I’ve never really been that kind of actor. I enjoy changing the worlds that I’m in.”

“I’ve been fortunate to be working in the film business for almost 25 years by doing a lot of different things,” he said. “You can’t only do cop pictures and you can’t only do little art-house movies. . . . I kind of figured if I keep trying different things, eventually I would accumulate some kind of learning.”

The learning extends beyond the big screen.

He’s tackled television, guest starring in an episode of ABC’s “Alias,” and is part of the small-screen adaptation of “Moby Dick,” an upcoming two-part miniseries in which he plays Starbuck. And he’s toiled on countless stages, appearing — and directing — numerous theater productions including “Henry IV” and “Hurlyburly.” “The theater, for me, has always been a place where I’m free to be more creative,” he said. “A place to sharpen my tools.”

Music video director? Yes, that too. He directed songstress Lisa Loeb’s music video for “Stay (I Missed You)” in 1994; the hit song was featured on the “Reality Bites” soundtrack. Oh, and he’s written two novels — “The Hottest State” and “Ash Wednesday”; both garnered mixed reviews.

There’s a method to all the madness. “In grade school they say you have to pick a profession and stick to it . . . and people stop looking at their lives as a work in progress,” he said. “If you don’t stay in touch with yourself, you kind of lose focus.

“If you’re going to spend a life in the arts, you need to be infused with a sense of gratitude and a sense of wonder. It’s a privilege to do this profession. But there is a payment you have to make for that privilege, which is to do your best all the time. To challenge yourself. That’s the luxury tax.”

[Photo: Ethan Hawke plays vampire scientist Edward Dalton in Daybreakers.]

~~~

Hawke’s pursuit of multiple talents and passions is a characteristic of many highly talented people – a quality described by Barbara Sher as the Scanner Personality. See her article Are You A Scanner?

developing multiple talents, self-exploration, developing creativity, creative potential, creative personality type

“My life was crushed when they told me ‘No.’ But I was 17, it was a long time ago and rejection like that only makes you stronger, gets you asking — how can I better myself?” [thetvaddict.com]

On body image

[Have you noticed any pressure in Hollywood regarding your size?]

“I actually noticed it more when I was younger which is why I stopped, it was getting to my self-esteem. But once I learned I am not my dress size and to never let anyone put me in a box, I was more content with being myself and letting the world see my light shine.”

[Young, Fat, & Fabulous youngfatandfabulous.com]

Also see more quotes on Body image.

women and talent, women developing creativity, negative body image, acting and rejection

Here are some quotes from the article: Ian McKellen reflects on ‘The Prisoner,’ Gandalf and gay rights, By Matea Gold, The Los Angeles Times.

In his view, Hollywood still hasn’t come that far in its attitude toward gays.

“The conventional wisdom is that if you are gay, you cannot play the romantic straight lead in a movie,” he said.

“They’d rather have ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ The proposition from Mephistopheles as you sign the agreement that you will become a Hollywood star is that you will lie about yourself. That’s selling your soul. This business may involve disguise, but it’s about telling the truth. And I don’t think a closeted actor in this day and age can act as well as an actor who is out.”

Shy but confident – Despite his strong sentiments, McKellen insists that he’s “a very shy person.”

Coming out gave him more confidence, but “it is not easy being something that society for generations has taught everybody is beyond the pale.” To this day, he sometimes ducks questions from cabbies about whether he is married, exhausted by the notion of explaining himself to a stranger.

“There are still times in my life where I pull back from being totally honest,” he said quietly, “and I can’t imagine a single straight person who would understand that.”

Once frustrated that Hollywood wasn’t throwing more big film roles his way, McKellen now appears to be content with what he has achieved. He can’t imagine formally retiring — “Going to live in the country? No.” — but is no longer yearning for parts that have yet to come his way.

“If I didn’t actually act again, I don’t think I would be any less happy, because I would always assume I was going to work. But let’s say I lost a leg and couldn’t work. Well, there’s an awful lot I would enjoy doing. I might get down to some reading.”

Photo: McKellen as ‘Two’ in The Prisoner [AMC series].

Related pages with quotes etc:
Identity
Self concept / self esteem articles
Sexuality
Androgyny / gender

building self confidence, celebrity and personal growth, self esteem confidence, confidence building, building self esteem, building identity, search for your true self

Acting in the final two “Potter” movies, and thinking about choosing college (maybe Columbia University), Emma Watson recently talked about criticism of her work as Hermione, and modulating her perfectionism.

“I will look back on this part of my life and I know it will be special, but it used to be that if I ever had a bad review or someone said, ‘Oh, she is too this,’ or ‘She’s too that,’ I got upset about it.

“Now what I have worked out is that it would actually be physically impossible to be perfect for everyone. Everyone has a distinct idea in their head of what each character is like.

“So I’ve kind of had to lower my standards. I can’t be perfect for everyone. J.K. ['Potter' author J.K. Rowling] thinks I’m perfect, and that’s good enough for me.”

[From Hero Complex blog post 'Harry Potter' countdown: Emma Watson still 'quite intimidated' by pal J.K. Rowling, by Geoff Boucher, LA Times, Jul 2 2009.]

Perfectionists and ‘greatists’

Director Jane Campion said about working with Nicole Kidman: “She can be quite murderously challenging in her perfectionism. Take Twenty: ‘Are you sure that’s good enough?’ We’re going, [wearily] ‘Yeah.’ ”

A number of talented and accomplished actors and other creative people are energized – or burdened – by this drive. Jennifer Connelly has admitted, “I am an obsessive-compulsive and a perfectionist. I don’t say it with pride.” And Bridget Fonda has said, “I’m afraid of making a mistake. I’m pretty neurotic about it.”

It’s also a matter of how you think of it. Director James Cameron refutes being labeled as a perfectionist: “No, I’m a greatist. I only want to do it until it’s great.”

The burden of being perfect

But a drive to be perfect can be an obsessive emotional force that helps fuel insecurity and dissatisfaction with your work, and undermines healthy self esteem. It can be part of why you “can’t stand” to watch your dailies or films – like Joaquin Phoenix and others. But that can keep you from learning more about and refining your performance.

Q’Orianka Kilcher [Pocahontas in "The New World"] says she has been a perfectionist “since she was little” but learned from Colin Farrell to let go of it: “He taught me acting wasn’t about being perfect. An actor should never take themselves too seriously. It took a burden off my shoulders.”

Emmy Rossum

Emmy Rossum [photo from "The Phantom of the Opera"] says that for her, being prepared for a role is crucial: “It’s not about control but perfectionism – my biggest vice and one of my biggest assets.”

Michelle Pfeiffer

That is a perspective shared by Michelle Pfeiffer: “I’m a perfectionist, so I can drive myself mad – and other people, too. At the same time, I think that’s one of the reasons I’m successful. Because I really care about what I do. I really want it to be right, and I want it to be good, and I don’t quit until I have to.”

Excellence is the prize

Linda Kreger Silverman, PhD, Director of the Gifted Development Center, says “Excellence is the hard-won prize of those whose zeal and dedication are fueled by the drive to attain perfection, as they envision it.”

But it’s a matter of balance, of using this need to “make it great” to refine yourself and your work, without being overwhelmed by it.

> Related pages:
Perfectionism
Perfectionism – articles books
article: Perfectionism – by Douglas Eby
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actors and perfectionism, dealing with perfectionism, overcoming perfectionism, demanding the best from yourself, striving for excellence