In his recent YouTube video, WheezyWaiter talked about inspiration. He mentioned in the video that one of his inspirations was famed internet guru Ze Frank. I absolutely love Ze Frank's thoughts on Brain Crack. Here's a super long excerpt:
If you don't wanna run out of ideas the best thing to do is not to execute them. You can tell yourself that you don't have the time or resources to do 'em right. Then they stay around in your head like brain crack. No matter how bad things get, at least you have those good ideas that you'll get to later.
Some people get addicted to that brain crack. And the longer they wait, the more they convince themselves of how perfectly that idea should be executed. And they imagine it on a beautiful platter with glitter and rose petals. And everyone's clapping for them. But the, but the, but the, but the bummer is most ideas kinda suck when you do 'em.
So often we get into a vicious cycle of perfectionism and under-achievement. I am a big perpetrator. I always want the next thing I do to be better and more meaningful than the last. But that's just not possible. Sometimes your ideas and projects fall flat and sometimes other people just don't get your vision.
It's pretty much a developmental milestone that children complain, "I can't draw the picture I have in my head." I specifically remember wanting to draw an elephant but getting so frustrated that I couldn't translate that to paper.
At a certain point, it's time to put pen to paper and just take off. You can't make excuses about not being inspired, and you can't hoard ideas just because you're afraid of messing them up. The beautiful thing about the internet is that everything is in "Beta", including us. Videos, blogs, articles, etc., can still be beautiful and meaningful and important even if they aren't perfect. Sometimes it is more important to get your perspective out there, even if it is flawed, so that others can learn from you and discuss with you and bounce off of your creation.
It takes so much pressure off when you accept that not every idea you try out will be awesome. It doesn't have to be. But waiting around for the perfect timing or the perfect inspiration will get you nowhere (unless, apparently, you are Jo Rowling and a marvelous story falls into your mind while on the train). We can create our own inspiration, but we have to start by creating something.
A final anecdote: when I was growing up, I would frequently complain about not knowing what to draw when we were coloring. My mom would take a black crayon and draw a squiggly line around the page, making sure to cross back over the line several times thus creating numerous odd, confined shapes. Then we would fill in each shape with a shaded color or pattern or picture. The smaller shapes were so much more manageable, and a squiggle felt oddly more full of possibilities than the intimidating blank page.
"They" say that if there are enough monkeys with keyboards they will eventually type the works of Shakespeare. Not sure how that works, but I like the idea that if you just keep trying, you can stumble into greatness.
Happy Thursday everyone!
Elise
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