I (somewhat) recently attended Traction Conf 2016. The second day of this event opened with a fireside chat between Justin Kan of Y Combinator and Kristina Shen of Bessemer Ventures. The conversation was generally interesting and useful, but there was one specific idea that stood out to me the most:
The Shitty First Draft
The idea that one should put something out when it's reached a basically useful state (a.k.a. MVP), become motivated that it's in the public (ish) sphere, and continue to iterate upon this first draft to make progressive improvements.
Similarly, another piece of advice which I received in the past which resonated strongly with me was:
Don't let "Perfect" get in the way of "Good Enough"
To me, these two ideas act as a sort of acceptance of imperfection and impermanence.
Over the years, I have set for myself a very high standards of conduct and achievement. In many areas of my life, this standard has been an immensely beneficial for me. The other side of the coin, however, is that it has also created a criticality which often hinders me to the point of being unable to move forward on some work. If I must put it out for some reason, I often become embarrassed or ashamed. This is usually for no good reason. People have been fine with it. The world goes on. All that negativity for no good reason...
...Okay, so where are you going with this, Joshua?
I really struggle with writing and selecting imagery. On my blog, there are about a dozen published posts. These have been worked on obsessively over multiple writes/revisions, reviewed by a number of generous friends, and I've felt that they were of a relatively good calibre. There are maybe 3-4 dozen unpublished works.
I have begun putting the Shitty First Draft concept into practice in other areas of my life. It's been surprisingly helpful. I will begin to do so with my writing as well. This content with be tagged as Shitty First Draft.
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Photo credits: Sharon Drummond (https://www.flickr.com/photos/dolmansaxlil/4487159833/)