The Path to Amazing

Getting started on any creative activity is so hard. Mostly it is because we feel the pressure to come up with something good, if not great. We tend to believe the myth that great works just happen…whereas the reality is that they evolve over multiple iterations.

Which is why Anne Lamott suggests that we feel free to “write a very, very horrible first draft”. Which sounds illogical at first: if you know it’s crappy, why write it at all? The answer is simple: to overcome the inertia; to get some momentum going.

In case of writing, Shawn Blanc says it helps to know one of the myths most of us have about writing:
“I wait to get started because I assume that if I don’t write something magical and clever as I’m typing it for the first time then I certainly won’t be able to improve upon it in the editing and re-writing process.”
But of course, that’s not true. You can improve the draft later. Seth Godin puts it very well:
“[T]he only path to amazing runs directly through not-yet-amazing. But not-yet-amazing is a great place to start, because that’s where you are. For now.”

As you iterate, Blanc says you’ll realize that amazing “was there all along, just not bubbling on the surface”.

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