…or do you simply need to act on the information you already have?
Often, research is a symptom of fear. After a certain point, gathering more data is just procrastination.
It’s worth asking this question when you’re feeling anxious to start something new.
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Artists tend to have little faith in themselves or their work. They prejudge, rewrite, and scrap work without ever letting the work just “be.”
We don’t feel it’s good enough, so we don’t hit “Publish” or “Post”. We fail to contact that company or that prospective client with a work proposal because we don’t feel we are good enough to get the job.
I’ll let you in on a little secret:
Your work isn’t good enough.
It isn’t good enough by your own definition of “good enough to ship,” which in all likelihood is actually the definition of “perfect.” It’s not good enough for your impossibly high standards.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t good. It might even be great.
If your definition of “good enough” is actually “perfect,” you will fail. Nothing you ever make will be perfect. Nothing will ever be “finished” with that mindset.
Ship your work anyway.
“Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
–Leonardo da Vinci
It is when we decide to abandon our work that it’s good enough to ship. Some work will be better than others; some days you will struggle.
But you are an artist, and artists create.
You will never feel that what you produce is good enough. It’s called “The Resistance”. Your amygdala – the “fight or flight” part of your brain – is telling you to run and hide to avoid being criticized or judged.
It is wrong. Don’t listen to it. Ship your work anyway. Don’t procrastinate because you don’t think it’s perfect (it never will be).
Don’t let the definition of “perfection” become your definition of “good enough.” That way leads only to frustration and regret.
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Yesterday’s post talked about perfection getting in the way of your art. Today, I wanted to give a special thanks to John Cochran, Joey Panella, and Rebecca Smith for letting me get out of my own way.
When I was in my early twenties, I majored in Jazz Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi. My weapon of choice was the drum set, and I was pretty average.
I was learning from books, playing in jazz band rehearsals 3 days per week, and shedding in the practice room. Still, I was not great.
I wasn’t great because I had almost no experience.
For whatever reason, John, a guitarist, came to me and asked if I would be willing to play drums with him and the others in a weekly gig at a pub in Hattiesburg. I accepted.
It was not until I started playing 3 hours a day – not very well – every single Tuesday from 10pm-1am, in front of a live audience, that my skills as a musician truly started to develop. That was the experience I needed to truly begin developing as a musician. It was at that point that I began learning on what I needed to focus and develop, so that I would improve. And improve I did.
I say all of that to encourage you to do a few things:
I’m not encouraging you to be bad at something for which you’ll never put in the effort to become excellent. I’m saying that you’ll have to be bad at something you want to do before you become good; it helps if you do it in public, and it really helps if someone supports you while you do it in public.
It’s the only way you will start learning what you need to learn.
Thanks John, Joey, and Rebecca.
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If you are an artist – a person who seeks to create beneficial change in the world – you are probably a perfectionist.
This is why you never hit “publish” on your blog, why you don’t post your photos on Instagram, or why your songs aren’t on YouTube and SoundCloud. It isn’t because the work you did is bad: it’s because you think if you do just a little bit more to it, it will be perfect.
You’ll never get there.
“An artist’s job is not to be perfect, but to [always] be creating.” – Jeff Goins
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The more you create, the more practice you get. You’ll hit that 10,000 hour mark we’ve all heard about. The more practice you get, the better your work will be.
Create something today.
Ship it – today.
Repeat tomorrow.
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