Judge, Jury, and Executioner!

We’ve all heard those sayings that people say over and over again. Some we agree with and some we don’t; Ignorance is bliss, Blood is thicker than water, Business before pleasure etc,. However, there is one that I believe most of us can always agree with; we are our own worst enemy.

More often than not, we internally criticize our work, our efforts, and our abilities. We do so to the point of redoing something a gagillion times. In fact, as our own personal critics, we seem to criticize ourselves as though we are being paid to do so. Some artists rework and rework, do millions of little ‘touch ups’ all the while in fear of ruining the aspect that they actually liked in the first place. They create in constant fear of going that one step too far. A lot of writers read, and re-read, and re-read, and re-read, ( this could go on for as long as the re-reading process itself…) all the while doing a ton of edits and changes, constantly second guessing and wondering if they should just scrap the whole darn thing and start over.
  

When all is said and done, and we manage to quiet the nay saying voices inside our heads, we find we are still afraid to show anyone our work for fear that they will see all of the little things we did, that they might even jump on board the train of doubt and steer it through any negativity we may have missed along our route. When we are in these positions of fear and doubt, of negativity and critical thinking, we often forget those times we reassured our friends that their own project was fantastic, that they were the only ones who saw the flaws they were mentioning to us. These are times we have to make an effort to remember.

We have to learn to make an effort to be less hard on ourselves. We have to find a way to stop comparing ourselves and our work to that of others. Now, I am not saying to avoid all competition. A little competition can be good for us, it can motivate us, but as with anything else, all in moderation. We have to remember to set personal goals and do our personal best because if we become too preoccupied with watching what everyone else is doing, we will quickly lose sight of our own goals, efforts, and abilities. (On the off chance my best friend reads this, shout out to you for our recent conversation which inspired yet another blog post.)

As creators, inventors, workers, employees, etc, we have to allow ourselves to simply give it our all and afford ourselves pride for having done so. Society and media has trained us to be far too hard on ourselves which, instead of leading to better things, has only lead to more stressed out people feeling unappreciated, worn down, and used up to the point of being even more hard on themselves just so it won’t sting as much when others are hard on them.

So artists, Picasso away! Imperfection leads to being famous! Writers, let your characters take control and play their story out themselves, they may surprise you! Employees and workers, keep on smiling and giving it your all, in the end it is your attitude that will give you a step up in this customer service driven world!

Cheers!

The Bra Street Rambler

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