Embracing imperfection

I get it - it's hard. Somedays just don't work out. We hold ourselves to a higher standard that sometimes just doesn't work out. However, I'll get to the point quickly on what the solution is - consistency.

Salvador Dali said, "Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it." When we don't even try for the fear of failure then we have already failed. Take this example:

The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pound of pots rated an "A", forty pounds a "B", and so on. Those being graded on "quality", however, needed to produce only one pot - albeit a perfect one - to get an "A".

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes - the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay. 

Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland

 Small incremental steps are required. Each day is a new day and we can learn from the last. It won't always be easy but that is how we grow.