Let’s focus on progress, not perfection.
This thought is more powerful than it seems at first.
Why?
Because we’re humans who want to always improve and we’ve been trained through all our years of schooling to try to “get it right.”
It’s a powerful phrase because making progress with your practice is FAR MORE important than getting it perfect. Especially as you build a creative practice that also happens to be a sustainable business.
The Imperfect Painting Sale
As an example, an artist I’m working with just got a serious lead from a collector for selling one of their larger paintings. The piece was hanging in the community studio in a location that’s not ideal, next to the refrigerator where not many people go. And the label information was missing.
All of this wasn’t ideal to sell the painting. But it is still selling despite conditions not being perfect for a sale.
The progress portion of this example is that the painting was finished and then installed in a public space.
Progress Is A Practice
It takes practice to make progress. And a willingness to make mistakes and not do everything perfectly every time.
It’s a skill that you can build.
It’s a habit to form.
It’s not something that you get right every day or with every task. Making progress with your business-building activities is more important than making sure everything is exactly perfect.
This leaves room for magical things to happen, like unexpectedly selling a painting.
Take Stock
When things aren’t going as you planned, can you remind yourself that you’re still making progress? And then celebrate how you’re getting ahead, even if it hasn’t come along exactly as you envisioned.
Tap into how it felt when this has happened for you previoiusly. Tell me, where have you made imperfect progress in the past?