Is perfectionism killing your creativity?
Weekly wisdom — Week 02
This week I completed project 365. For those who aren’t familiar with the concept, it’s a challenge where you take one photo every day for a year.
I did it because I wanted to take more photos and get into the habit of taking my camera around with me wherever I went. The plan was to take a self-portrait on the last day to reveal the man behind the camera. However, after looking through the photos from the beginning, I saw I had numbered some incorrectly, meaning I was actually two days further ahead than I realised.
Consequently, I had already taken the 365th photo without knowing, meaning things didn’t quite go to plan. In fact, it wasn’t the first time things hadn’t gone to plan… On several occasions, I had to swap photos around or find something to photograph at the last minute because I had forgotten. It reminded me that the creation is often more valuable than the outcome.
Around six months ago, I set myself the task of creating and uploading one piece of music every month. I used to be such a perfectionist and it had caused me to stop making music completely. I started to find lots of content that talked about perfectionism in relation to creativity and decided that I needed to face the discomfort and start putting things out into the world on a more regular basis. I’m not less proud of work that I spent months tweaking and analysing. In fact, I am more proud of its imperfections and rough edges because it gives it character and makes it more real.
We live in a digital age where we can edit and re-edit as much as we like, yet I still hear people talking about their work not being ready. I believe we should always be striving to do our best work but never at the cost of consistent creativity, as after all, it’s this process that leads to great work. There is a significant body of research to support the theory, that if you have a creative block, the best way around it is to create as much as you can, without too much conscious thought or filtering. Then you can go back and edit later if you really need to. Most of the time though, we revisit the work and decide we like it as it is. After all, we can always create something different next time.
This is a lesson I learned a long time ago but often struggle with. I need to regularly remind myself that the only way I am going to improve is to create and review, not wait until I feel my work is perfect before I hit publish.
Is there anything you are currently holding back from the world? Is perfectionism killing your creativity? If so, why not start a challenge with your friends or co-workers such as project 365 or weekly wisdom?
You can check out my project 365 here: https://www.instagram.com/matt_essam/
You can listen to my music here: https://soundcloud.com/sonomic
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