If There’s One Thing I’ve Learned

Another in the You Write the Title series, this one was suggested by MattHall.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that I need people who call me out and cut me slack.

That sounds contradictory, right? It’s not.

I need to be reminded that I shouldn’t let myself scare myself into inaction, and I need to be pushed to do more than I think I can.

To see a bit of what I mean, go read “How to Steal Like an Artist (and 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me)“. It’s so brilliant and freeing it almost made me cry. What I got out of it, put many different ways, is: you can only do awesome things if you stop trying to be perfect.

Stop trying to have only completely original ideas. Stop trying to do only completely perfect work. Stop trying to be so unreachably, unstoppably, completely perfect, and stop thinking that other people are. All we can do is learn from each other, so calm down and go get in the game already.

I need people who don’t shove me, and don’t coddle me, but who draw me forward. That’s what I’ve learned.