Permission to Be Mediocre

Sometimes you have to teach yourself to produce work that is good enough. When we consume work from too many places and too many people, we develop a quiet sense of inadequacy. Our own work begins to look small and insignificant. We see someone else's work and devalue our own. Therein lies the problem. We cannot produce our best work without first producing a great deal of mediocre work. Good work is iterative. You will never create something you consider your best without first creating things you consider mediocre. It is a journey you have to begin. So aim for volume first, then for quality. Volume gets you moving. Quality is its byproduct. It has to follow. The first few sketches won't look impressive. The hundredth might. The first essay is always mediocre. The hundredth might hold together. The first novel reads like an amateur's. The tenth might read like the work of someone who takes the craft seriously. Stop measuring yourself against others and focus on producing work that is…

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