Last year my dearest friend sent me this book Big Magic: Creative Life Beyond Fear by Liz Guilbert (she also appears to be the author of bestselling novel Eat Pray Love) to help me with my never-ending self doubt and procrastination. Initially, I got a little sceptical because I knew I am not doing great with motivational books and their typical “just do it” message. My creative struggle was always deriving not from lack of motivation – most of the time I am pretty good at setting the goal and following it till it’s archieved, but rather I am always in doubt that it is even worth the trouble.
For me, as a classic perfectionist, my work was never good enough to put it out there, not even saying to be proud of or enjoy showing it. Despite of often the good feedback from friends and family, I always knew that I need a little bit more skills and a little bit more technical knowledge here and there to start finally producing something worthy. And this lasted for years. While, apparently, I still believe that the day you stopped learning will be the day you die, I finally realized something important with the help of this book.
This perfectionist bullshit may never stop, I never will be “good enough” because there always will be someone who does it better, more skillful, more interesting, better recognized and higher paid.
There will always be someone who is better than me. But should this stop me from enjoying what I love the most – making images? Should I sell all my gear, sit back, relax and scroll up while others are doing my art? How can I give up without even trying?
It was very liberating to allow myself simply to forget about the perks of successful artist, to forget about success at all. This is not the right point to think about the success while you’re just starting. You have to be okay with the fact that you may never become a successful artist. Because this is not what this is about. We are, absolutely all of us, have a creative spark inside and the way we express it (dancing, painting or reviving old cars) if at all doesn’t really matter. But what matters is the joy of making, the process itself and the final result no matter how “ugly, rooky, clumsy” it turned out. Done is better than perfect. It’s as simple as that. I am not saying that I am now switching off my inner auditor, but I am motivated to finish.
Author gives a sincere advice and her own stories how to collaborate with your creativity, not to battle against and killing it in the infancy. I was curious and captivated throughout the entire book and even considering re-reading it after awhile. If you feel like you’re stuck in the middle between your self-doubt and lack of ideas, read this book, I am sure you’ll find something new like I did that helped me finish this project. Welcome to my website!