Creating

So often when we try to create we judge what we are making before its even had a chance to breathe and grow

Ben posted this in relation to a quote from Sister Corita Kent, who I know nothing about, and now feel compelled to hear more from.

About a month ago, I told my brother that I’d write something meaningful to me every day for 100 days on this blog.  It’s been great, and it’s been terrible.  

The beauty of a commitment like that is that I have to write and publish every day.  And a lot of days, the thoughts I’ve had, whatever I’ve written down, I don’t like them.  They’re boring, they’re hard to make sense of, they’re pretentious, or they’re just poorly written.  And I don’t want to post them.  But I do. I thrust them on you poor people, and then I (usually) have them automatically posted to Facebook and Twitter to seal the deal, and ensure people revel in the mediocrity with me.

Just as Ben describes, my default state would be to never publish anything except things that I really like, and I’m really excited about – which means I’d basically never post anything at all.  I’m glad to be forced to follow his advice – to be forced to write, create, and avoid judging too much during the process – something just has to get posted every day.

So take Ben’s advice.  Go make something, and don’t let yourself judge it along the way – just go until you’re done, and let it turn out how it turns out.  Whatever it is, you’ll end up better than when you started.