Comments on: Mildly Creative: Take A Break From Being Excellent

By: Embrace the research process | Jo VanEvery

Embrace the research process | Jo VanEvery — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 00:04:12 +0000

[...] Embrace the research process Posted on October 2, 2009 by Jo VanEvery “The usual result of worrying about excellence or perfection before you start creating is that you’ll never start creating. Let go of how good the end product will be and embrace the act of creating. Excellence comes as a byproduct of continual creation and learning.” (Charlie Gilkey, Productive Flourishing, July 30, 2009) [...]

By: Laura at the Journal of Cultural Conversation

Laura at the Journal of Cultural Conversation — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:32:44 +0000

Just came across your site and am finding so many “nuggets” of useful information here. I particularly like this recent post, since I personally put so much pressure on being excellent the first time around…but I do agree that once the creative process starts, ideas flow from there. Here’s hoping! Glad to be a part of your community. – Laura
.-= Laura at the Journal of Cultural Conversation´s last blog ..Brilliant Voices: An Interview With Jeannine Hebb =-.

By: Cath Duncan

Cath Duncan — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:32:00 +0000

Ken is a gem! Love that you’ve found him

Cath

By: Katy

Katy — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:43:59 +0000

“The usual result of worrying about excellence or perfection before you start creating is that you’ll never start creating.”

Yup ! I’ve met this before so many times, thanks God I’ve been able to learn my lesson in the end

By: JoVE

JoVE — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:04:28 +0000

“Let go of how good the end product will be and embrace the act of creating. ”

Excellent point. I’m going to riff on it for my audience. Academics struggle with perfectionism a lot. If I can come up with a knitting example to go with it, my post might even come close to perfect
.-= JoVE´s last blog ..If you had one more week… =-.

By: Michelle Russell

Michelle Russell — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:12:28 +0000

Charlie, you’re absolutely right that “the path to excellence is paved with a bunch of failures and missteps.” The problem is, we’re so indoctrinated into the must-be-successful mentality that it takes constant vigilance to even *notice* how often we’re plugging into that felt need to be excellent, and a lot of inner energy to deliberately change course. That kind of vigilance is exhausting, and sometimes I allow myself to slip into unconsciousness because conscious awareness and growth are just so much work. I can’t be that aware **all** the time.

I guess you might say that I’m aiming for perfect imperfection, but I’m not there yet. ;o)

By: Ali Hale

Ali Hale — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:53:17 +0000

I’m slowly getting better at letting go of “perfect” … and I know exactly what Ken means about settling for the things that are easy to be excellent at. The times when I really learn, though, tend to be the times when I feel like I’m fumbling around in the dark.

With my fiction writing on my MA course, some of the scenes I found very tricky to write (and was very unsure about) are the ones which other students and my tutor have praised the most.

I’ve cast perfectionism to the wind for the moment: my latest creative project is learning to knit. Five rows in and, well, to say it’s “far from perfect” would be a bit of an understatement…
.-= Ali Hale´s last blog ..Review of Cloud Living (Glen Allsopp) =-.

By: Deb Owen

Deb Owen — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:59:42 +0000

I haven’t seen Ken’s post yet today, but I couldn’t agree more with this point. Creativity needs to have room to be messy and imperfect.

And maybe we’re all on the same wavelength….but perfectionism will not only keep you from starting anything sometimes, it will also erode your self-esteem as you always find yourself coming up short.

Thanks for this!
All the best!
deb
.-= Deb Owen´s last blog ..common blocks to creativity (and life) =-.