…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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It’s a presence of fear.
That thing you were considering—now you feel you aren’t “passionate” enough about it to pursue.
The business you thought of starting. The video you were going to film. The degree you thought about getting.
You’re telling yourself you aren’t passionate about it. And therefore it’s not worth doing.
You’re wrong.
Passion has nothing to do with it. You’re just scared.
Scared of starting. Scared of failing. Unsure of what it will look like once you commit.
To paraphrase Seth Godin: if it scares you, it’s a pretty good sign you should try to do it.
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…Or just excited?
Fear and excitement create a lot of the same physiological reactions in your body.
Jittery hands.
Feeling clammy.
Elevated heart rate.
We’ve got this little thing in our brain (the amygdala) that did a great job keeping us safe on the savannah and in the jungles thousands of years ago… But now it’s keeping us from bravely shipping our art… or leading other people.
The problem is it can’t tell the difference between a saber tooth tiger (real danger) and the not-so-dangerous act of publishing your work.
It FEELS dangerous… But it’s not. And yet we get the same physiological reaction.
So maybe you aren’t scared. Maybe you’re just feeling excited about possibilities instead. So when you feel those feelings, you should ask yourself, “What am I excited about?”
Is this the kind of fear that is keeping me safe from harm?
Or is this the kind of fear that is keeping me from being at my best?
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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