Just Ship Already
Why getting it perfect doesn’t matter
When I was younger — about 7/8 years ago, I was in a dance crew and we had this one kid, he was just amazing. He was talented, whenever a new dance routine got introduced, he’d be among the first to grasp it and do it. When we battled each other, he’d come out on top as the winner (7/10 times, he couldn’t beat the leaders of the crew). But he had one problem — he was a perfectionist.
Although there’s nothing wrong with being a perfectionist. And to some extent we all are, you might say that there’s nothing wrong with getting things perfect, but it can be your Achilles heel. You see he was really talented and I was, well I was just another dancer in this crew. I didn’t care much for making sure that I perfected the moves, if we’re synchronized then that’s all that mattered — you know “moving as a unit”.
At times when we went to practice I was laughed at for not getting the moves down or not showing up for practice (I really had a lot commitments). At one point I had to earn my spot because I didn’t show up for practice and someone else got it, anyway, I digress.
This talented kid (let’s call him Jody), Jody was the kind of person that if he didn’t get something right the first time or perfectly then he wouldn’t even attempt it. He opted to be a beautiful failure than a deficient success. I on the other hand would let someone record the routine and use those recordings to practice (and get my damn spot back), he’d be the kind of person to not even try because he couldn’t get it or he feels like he can’t do the routine perfectly. Well nothing bad has happened to Jody, not that he ended up on the street or anything, he is doing well for himself.
Now, I tell this story because most of us have some form of Jody in us, heck! My lecturer pointed this out to me when I handed in an assignment. It was a 2 page assignment and I had over 25 references that I’ve used (talk about OCD), the other students stopped at 10. For you it might be writing, or whatever creative field you’re exploring for me…it is research, writing and other things. We want to get the post just right, we obsess over every sentence, the spacing and comma, the formatting etc.
Robert Stone famously joked that “I have the two worst qualities imaginable in a writer; I’m lazy and I’m a perfectionist”. We all strive to make things just perfect and the sad truth is that we will never attain perfection — NEVER. But we can do something about it.
Great artist ship faster
“So many of us believe in perfection, which ruins everything else, because perfect is not only the enemy of the good; it’s also the enemy of the realistic, the possible, and the fun.” — Rebecca Solnit
Trying to be perfect stops most of us from doing great things and in most cases it stops us from ever starting. Perfectionism somehow convinces us that the end product won’t be good, so it is better to not even try. But there is hope for us after all. Elizabeth Gilbert, in her book Big Magic, suggested that we become deeply disciplined half-asses (strange phrase right?). Let me explain, when we become deeply disciplined half-asses, it means that we forget being perfect and we do everything in a disciplined manner (meaning we get sh*t done) and we’re half-assing our way through, not that you don’t give your best in a task but you’re letting go of trying do it perfectly.
Perfectionism gives us a reason to put things off, reasons like “I don’t have all the answers, so I can’t start”, but when we’re disciplined half-asses we get to beat perfectionism by doing the task — getting it done. We’re so worried about having everything just right before we start, but after a while we’ll see all those things doesn’t matter, what matters is getting it out — Just ship already!
People who shipped faster
If we look at all the people who have been able to implement their artistic visions, we’ll see that they were also perfectionists like you and me,but they also knew that it was more important to be disciplined half-asses. Steve Jobs, when he released the iPhones, there were problems but he made sure he got the product out on time. Kanye West, with his Life of Pablo album made 12 changes after it was released. The reason these two were successful in their respective fields is because they understood that they were perfectionists but what mattered most was getting the product out and then making changes as you go.
If you’re worried about your post not being grammatically correct, write it and put it out, you can always make changes later. Your podcast is of a low quality? put it out, you can fix the gear later or start recording in your closet for better sound quality. Your video’s transition suck? No worries, it’ll get better. As a creative you have to be content with the fact that your first 1000 videos, podcasts, posts etc. will be your worst and that you’ll never get it right but the good news is that your content only gets better from here. So, forget trying to make things perfect, just create and put it out into the world — JUST SHIP ALREADY!
Hi! I am Danley. Thank you for reading this 😃
