I Never Want To Be Perfect
Everyone has something they’re not good at. No one can be successful at everything. And those who are successful are not without slip-ups along the way. In the creative world, failure is practically a requirement (just as it is in every other field ever). We all have to start in square one, and move forward from there. This can be in design, video, photography, etc. No one is ever a pro in the beginning. Experience takes time, thought, and dedication, and none of that happens without some failures along the way.
Granted, some people are naturally talented at certain activities or hobbies while others may have to work a little harder. For example, I always feel like I need to consistently practice my design work because I’m not a naturally gifted designer. In fact, I’ve been very bluntly told that my work looked like it had crawled out of the 90’s. I’ve worked hard from my freshman year through now, and I’ve seen a difference in what I create. By no means would I say I’m a great designer – I have a long way to go. But I can still applaud myself for just a moment to see how far I’ve come in my design skills and knowledge. Design, just like everything else, takes practice. I’m not great at drawing, I was never in art club, and I never even took an art class in high school, so I’ve felt the need to always be practicing and training my eyes and mind in design. So some people may have to work harder than others, but that doesn’t mean that one side works harder than the other. Both have pulled all-nighters, stretched their minds as far as they can go, and have had doubts. Both make mistakes, and both learn from those instances and move on from them.
Learning from mistakes is how great athletes, designers, philanthropists, etc. make themselves better. No one moves forward from succeeding all the time. I’ve had so many design flops that I’ve lost track of them. And I’m not even in the professional world yet. But I’ve taken those experiences, recognized what it was that wasn’t working, and applied it to future projects. In an article from Christian Today, Claire Musters talks about how you shouldn’t let failure get you down. “We can also become very self-condemning, heaping negative thoughts upon ourselves.” We can’t dwell in our flops and failures. If we do, then we can never move forward and better ourselves in our field. One failure doesn’t mean that you should quit what you’re doing; it means that you’ll be stronger when you continue on.
Shia LaBeouf says to stop starting over. Accept your failures; Just do it.
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Just because you’ve failed doesn’t mean you’re a failure. Like I said, it means that you’re moving forward and becoming better at your skill. If everyone had the mindset that they sucked whenever they dropped the ball on something, then nothing would ever get done. One of the most important things that has helped me through my design journey is remember that there will always be someone better than you. Once you accept that fact, it gives you motivation to be that person to someone else. I always strive to be better and better, and I use that saying as motivation. I know that I’ll never be the #1 top designer, because there isn’t one. No one is perfect. Even well-known professionals like Paul Rand and David Carson were never perfect. While their work seemed flawless, the process was most likely far from perfect. They made mistakes in their journey to get to their final products. As designers, we will never stop failing, and that’s awesome. I can’t wait to never stop learning more about what I do. I never want to reach perfection; I want to continue failing so I can always get better and better.