Fight perfectionism without making work that sucks

To have any hope of your art succeeding, you need to “ship” it. You want your work to be good, but perfectionism can prevent your work from ever having a chance.

Perfectionism will keep your work inside you. It will convince you that you still need to tweak, and that your work still needs to be better before it’s ready to go out into the world.

But is there nothing to be said of giving your work a certain degree of polish?

To fight perfectionism, and still do good work, you have to build your vision muscle. Your vision muscle is your ability to have a vision of the final product, and have a vision of the steps it will take to get there.

If you can clearly picture how this round of tweaks will play out, if you can picture how this piece will be received, you’re on the right track. You’ve shipped enough in the past to build up your vision muscle.

Shipping every piece of art has some uncertainty and fear wrapped into it. That’s what makes it worth doing.

But if you don’t know. If you don’t have a past experience to compare it to — at least some project slightly less-ambitious—then perfectionism is getting the best of you. It will comfort you until you die, and your masterpiece will die along with you.

Dream big, but start small. Keep shipping every day. Do some work that does suck. It’s the surest way to finish your masterpiece.

Getting Art Done will boost your creative productivity and help you make your masterpiece. Sign up for updates.