I’m not really writing tonight with a broader point in mind than to relate an experience I had this week.
Some of you may know, but if you didn’t here:- ten weeks ago, I began writing a creative newsletter.
No one was more shocked than myself, that I have been able to keep it going for ten weeks in a row!
I feel, (and actually this may not be factual) that on creative projects I often flare and fade, rather than see them through. Which is very interesting to me because recently a friend remarked that one thing she liked about me was that I usually do things when I say I will do them!
Obviously something is going wrong somewhere in my creative space!
Anyway, back from that squirrel tangent moment!
I began writing a newsletter and it was scary! In order to press send I had to remind myself that people don’t only resonate with the masters. people resonate with things created by beginners, with things created with childish drawings, or mistakes in the writing. Imperfect creations still change the world too.
Those things that we imagine or want to create, will not change the world if we don’t make them or share them. And if we don’t start somewhere, how are we going to get where our dreams tell us we are capable of being?
So I began. It wasn’t awful, it wasn’t good. It looked okay.
And I got through ten weeks of curating, and putting it together.
Somewhere along the line, I asked for some feedback.
And of course it wasn’t anything like I wanted to hear!
But I do greatly respect her, her creative talents, her insight and her time, so I wanted to act.
And I tweaked a bit, and changed a bit, and I sent that next newsletter out with mistakes and everything!
But it still needed more! Ugh! Why is making things so good and so painful?
So last week, and I had a migraine so I can’t even remember why I decided to do what I did…but I worked on the newsletter some more. Instead of photos I drew some of my own pictures. I added more clarity, and more sections! I even wrote a blog post for it!
And as I looked at it, the feeling of unease and frustration turned into joy. Somehow, through the practicing, and the trying, and the tweaking, I had arrived at what I was hoping to make!
That is the absolute best feeling! Arriving at what you were hoping to make!
This is not a story about how you can achieve your goals in ten weeks, because really we need to count all those weeks of years that I wanted to write a creative newsletter but didn’t. Or tried and stopped.
And I’m sure I’m not finished tweaking, and I’m definitely not there yet on my content, and I want to use it to encourage more creatives, but the line work is done, and it’s all about the detail now!
Was this a boring story about how I achieved something?
Maybe?
I wanted to say that your imperfect creations will still change the world.
And as you put them out there, and get some feedback, and practice and learn some more, eventually the thing you are making will be exactly what you want it to be, and the joy of that, is awesome.
In the very least, you will be changing your life, but I will bet that it won’t stop there!
Did I know that before this week, that imperfect creations will still change the world? Maybe I would have agreed theoretically, but thinking through my piles of creative thoughts that have come (so far) to nothing, I would have said I didn’t know that. Or I felt too overwhelmed to keep going.
But that is not me anymore. I am using this joy, to spur me on to finishing other imperfect creations that have been bugging me, and also some not yet created things too.
Here is my list:
Refresh my website
Write some recipes
Put some designs on some t-shirts.
Hold me to these my friends!
Where do you need to keep going?