Do It Poorly

This is my third attempt at writing this month’s blog post because for some reason I’m unable to complete my thoughts in an understandable manner. But I still want a blog post for December because I haven’t missed one since I started posting again this year.

Something I have learned over the course of the year and especially the past two months is that it’s better to do something poorly than not at all.

Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.

Let me explain. Of course, it would be great if you could always do an amazing job every time you did something, but sometimes you can’t bring that energy to the table. Doing the best you can, even if that day your best is not that good at all, is still better than not attempting in the first place.

A month ago, I started doing these activity pulls (I filled a cup with little slips of paper that had different activities I’d written and then I’d do the activity that I pulled from the cup) and looking back there are so many more aesthetic ways I could have done some of them. But they may not have gotten done at all if I’d held myself to that.

If that means taking messy notes on post it notes instead of in a nice journal for the book I’m reading, or buying drugstore chocolate for taste testing instead of going to a fancy chocolatier, then that’s okay.

And if that means writing a comparably plain blog post instead of the more complex ideas I had in the beginning during a month where I can’t seem to write anything good, then that’s still okay.

The point, I guess, is simply to do the thing without care of how you’re going to do it.

Don’t get me wrong, I have my moments where I absolutely want to get something done in a specific way and have the how planned out. But in the moments where I’m dragging or struggling, I remind myself that it’s better to do something than nothing.

And yet sometimes with creativity it’s better to take a step back and try again later. Life, as always, is a perpetual balancing game.

This year I started up this blog again because when I looked back at all the work and effort I’d put into it I felt so proud of what I’d accomplished. I want to end this year on that note as well and start the next one off with even more loftier goals.

I can always write the more complex blog post next month.

You can always try something again.

I think when not doing something seems preferable to doing it poorly there’s a mindset of ‘I can’t do this again so I have to do the best job ever’ behind it. But that’s not true, you can try the same thing again. If anything doing it poorly will give you an idea of what to expect so you can actually do it better the second time around.

Just do what you can, but make sure to do it.

Like how I’ve written this blog post at 11:43 PM because I finally got an idea I felt I could execute in a simple and succinct way and because I don’t want to miss this month’s post.

With that I’ll sign off for the year and meet you again in 2023 with (hopefully) a more complex blog post with cool ideas you can try. Thanks for sticking with this blog this year and here’s to the next one.