Book encourages readers to ‘Stop Waiting For Perfect’
L’Oreal Thompson Payton is an award winning journalist, author and speaker. Her book, Stop Waiting for Perfect,” is out now. Photo provided by BenBella Books.
Thompson Payton wrote the book because as a big fan of self-help books, she was seeking a messy, imperfect version of a self help book from someone who was still going through different struggles, having a more peer-to-peer conversation.
“That’s what ‘Stop Waiting for Perfect’ is, it’s sort of this love letter to my fellow perfectionists and high achievers and really ambitious people, who can sometimes get in their own way of making their dreams come true and going after their goals,” she said, adding the book is a permission slip for those people to have ambitious goals, go after them, to not wait for the perfect moment or all the checked boxes.
Thompson Payton’s advice: Start imperfectly. You can iterate it as you go.
Thompson Payton is an award-winning journalist, author and speaker. She has written for Bustle, HelloGiggles, People, SELF, Shondaland and ZORA. She is a health and wellness reporter at Fortune. She also shares her thoughts and perspective on her website: www.ltinthecity.com and through her weekly motivational newsletter.
Writing the book was a journey. In 2015, Thompson Payton had the idea, and in 2017, she wrote the book proposal. In 2018, she started to query different agents, and in 2020, she signed with her current agent. In 2021, she got the book deal for “Stop Waiting for Perfect.” She finished the drafts and iterations early Spring of this year.
Thompson Payton described the process of having an idea for a book and getting it published as long and arduous. From communication differences to deals that didn’t work out, she had to take a leap of faith. Because she has an abundance mindset, she believes in not settling and knew there were other opportunities out there. She found an agent who matched better in communication and vision for her career. The third time was the charm.
The book was originally about overcoming imposter syndrome. But, as it evolved, it came to include more about self-doubt and perfectionism. The night before the final draft was due, Thompson Payton emailed her editor because she wanted to change parts of the book that weren’t working and weren’t in her voice.
A lot of the topics in the book came from LT In the City, Thompson Payton’s weekly newsletter and essays she has written. The title of the book even came from the newsletter. It was during a discussion with her editor and agent about her newsletter where she wrote about writing the book and a tweet she saw that said, “you can edit bad, but you can’t edit nothing.” It really spoke to her at a time when she was struggling to finish the first draft.
“I was like OK, I just gotta get words on a paper, we can fix it and iterate it later. It doesn’t have to be a perfect first draft. I have to stop waiting for perfect and the perfect moment to write the book and that’s when we landed on Stop Waiting for Perfect as the new title,” she said.
On Monday, Aug. 17th, Thompson Payton appeared on CBS Mornings to discuss the book, which launched on Aug. 15th. She described the journey of launching the book as surreal. Something she worked so hard for is finally out in the world.
Thompson Payton said she still gets goosebumps when she sees her daughter, Violet, holding her book.
“It’s very much a pinch me moment,” she said, adding that it feels like an out of body experience, with all of the things happening all at once.
Thompson Payton hopes the book will give the readers permission to be imperfect. If there’s something they want to do – from starting a podcast to writing a book – to do it. She believes people do themselves a disservice when they wait for the perfect moment, because it is never going to come. She added, “we’re always going to come up with some type of excuse. There’s always going to be something standing in the way.” Instead of waiting for perfect, she encourages people to start now, feel the fear and do it anyway.
“If you want the change that you desire and seek and really want in your life, you have to take a small action, you have step outside of your comfort zone because that’s where the magic happens,” she said.
The audiobook is available. Thompson Payton will be at Barbara’s Bookstore in Lombard on Sept. 15th. To order the book, visit www.ltinthecity.com/book.
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