Creative people make attempts. They have no guarantees. The things they make often fall short of the things they imagined, but every now and then, they exceed them, which is why they go on trying.
Far too often, however, we wait, though we don’t know what we’re waiting for. “I’ll give it a go next year,” we say, “The time isn’t right. I’m not ready. I have more to learn.”
We wait for perfection. We wait for permission. We wait for our lives to be less complicated, our thoughts to be less muddled, our visions to be less fuzzy.
We wait for a fantasy. We fool ourselves into thinking that if we just wait long enough, the thing will one day appear in our minds fully formed and functional. All we’ll have to do is follow the blueprint.
But anything we get by waiting, isn’t something we create. It’s something we inherit, and incredibly less rewarding.
What will you get for your efforts? What if you’re wasting your time? You’ll never know until you try. Nothing attempted, nothing made.
And if the idea of wasting your time really ties you in a knot, remember this. It’s your time to waste. You can waste it however you choose. Would you rather waste it worrying and playing it safe, or attempting to make something wonderful, useful, beautiful, meaningful? I’d rather fail at the latter than succeed at the former.
What are you waiting for? It’s time to spread your wings and try.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks once again for this great inspiration. I love your blog!
Joanna Maxwell´s last blog ..Why three solutions are better than one.
Thanks, Joanna. I also liked your last post.
My first 3 (finished) novels were crappy. I made the attempt though, as you suggested in your article. Wannabe writers don’t get that far. Those first 3 novels never got published, and a couple of later novels didn’t either. Still, I’m glad that I followed my dream of writing novels.
It’s the last line that tells it all. Though not all your attempts succeeded, some of them did, and you’ve no regrets for having tried. Thanks, Kathleen.
I can definitely relate to this. I have been writing music on-and-off for almost 5 years now and very rarely have I ever finished a project all the way through. When it comes to art, I become a perfectionist and nothing ever gets done. Thanks for the advice!
Steven Handel´s last blog ..33 Questions from Dragos Roua
Perfection kills.
I just finished a conversation. The question was – “Why don’t you promote yourself?” My answer is that my “work” isn’t perfect and I don’t want people to see it yet.
“We wait for the fantasy” … At Follow Through camp a few weeks ago, Barbara Winter shared the quote from Bill Strickland’s book “Making the Impossible Possible” about Fantasy and Dreams. This difference has been showing up in my life often recently. Thanks for today’s encouragement!
Yep. A dream directs us. A fantasy fools us.
This is definitely one that I have been working on within myself. I consider myself a work in progress because in the past, I did do just that…having something in my head that didn’t always look the same once produced and would disregard them but am beginning to push past the wanting the perfection. I just keep thinking that yes, in my mind it isn’t perfect and I see the flaws but to someone else, they do look at it and see it as perfection. For example, I made a banner that hangs at the front of the church for everyone to see…every week I have to sit there and see the imperfections and yet, I still get compliments from people on how much they love it and are drawn to it. So, slowly, I’m learning and growing with this lesson!
Thanks for clarifying things for me, Ken…this helps even more to know that it IS okay!
I think everyone can relate to that experience, Della.
I’ve received a great response to some things I’ve written that I thought were clumsy and dull.
I’ve also experienced the thundering sound of dead silence in response to things I wrote that I thought were pretty grand.
You just never know – until you try.