Why I Don’t Do My Best Work

There are several projects I’m working on that I can’t seem to finish.  Or if I finish, I don’t post them to my websites.  If I post them, I don’t promote them on social media.  Fundamentally, I know I can produce so much more and of much better quality.  And yet, I don’t do it, even when doing so would help me and others that I serve.

In this post, I’m exploring what keeps me (and probably you) from doing and sharing your best work.  Answering truthfully is uncomfortable, but I’m committed to writing AND sharing this post in one sitting.  Before it gets too big.  Before it gets too academic.  Before Grammarly tells me about incomplete sentences!  And before it gets too “important” to release in whatever state emerges.

You see, I have a habit of coming up with great ideas of what I COULD do and then sitting on them because I get scared.

• I’m scared that it’s not good enough,
  even though I’m not comparing against any standard but my harsh critic.
• I’m scared that somebody will hate it,
  even though that means it’s not written for you anyway.
• I’m scared that you will ignore it,
  even though your attention is not required for me to produce.
• I’m scared that it will be great!
  and that everything that comes afterward will be worse by comparison.

But if I’m really honest, my fears are more profound than that, and chances are yours are too.

I’m scared that I will be judged by my work, and if I’m going to be judged, then I darned well better make it exceptional. But that takes more time, work, effort, revisions, and introspection.   Or, I can hide, never share my work, and thus avoid being judged for something I kept inside.

And so I have ideas.  The thing I want to write, create or do — things I find interesting.  And I accumulate an ever-growing list of “could do” items, rather than just getting off of my butt and writing, posting, and sharing.

There is another way.  It’s true for me, in writing this post, and it’s true for you despite whatever BS excuse keeps you from sharing your work as a gift.

Producing Creative Work and Sharing It Is a Practice.

It’s the practice of creating, sharing, and posting, over and over, that makes it easier.  It’s the practice of being willing to release the first draft that makes producing more of them easier.  It’s the practice of writing to clarify our thoughts that put us in a place where more and greater ones can emerge.

I know this.  You know this.  And the ONLY way to get from here to there, from where you are to where you want to be, is to develop a practice of practicing.

As I near the end of this post, I think I have to have some call to action.  I need a reason to post it in the hopes of maybe generating a lead for my own business.  So if you want to talk about the practices to grow your business, we can schedule a conversation.  But the real purpose of this post is to be authentic and to begin a practice of producing more content.  I’m writing here to become a better producer of creative ideas that make a difference for me and others for whom it resonates.