This isn’t really a solution-oriented post, but rather an honest portrayal of what’s currently happing in my habits and mindset at times, as of writing.
When creating content right now — whether it’s writing blogs, capturing newsletters, making main channel videos or documenting my journey on my second channel — I feel this need to make each thing I do great. From the title, to the thumbnail, to the hook, to the rest of the content, as well as the conclusion. And if there are sections lacking, I
This can be an amazing thing for a whole host of reasons.
Firstly, it forces me to constantly improve my craft and become better and better at what I do.
Secondly, what was great to me a year ago is no longer great to me today. My standards increase over time and it again forces me to make better and better content.
Thirdly, the audience I serve gets the best of the best that I make because I’m giving them the highest value possible.
But the downsides of this mindset also exist too if I give into them.
A backlog of content can build-up of half-complete content because it’s good, but not great.
At times, the process can become very unfun because I can find myself putting too much pressure on to make it amazing, highly optimized, with zero dead time, etc. and this level of pressure can sometimes taint the elegant creative energy
I’m so focused on creating for high quality, that there’s a risk of removing the personality in favour of the message, which I oh so love to infuse (and is the same reason why you like your favourite creators, whether you admit it or not).
Even second channels or public journals — purposefully designed places for imperfection to be published — feel like they always need to be at a certain level of quality, which defeats the whole point of why these areas & formats exist
It infiltrates unintentional areas of my life too, like even private journals! Even last night I noticed that because things weren’t phrased elegantly enough in a journal entry, I found myself uncomfortable by it and began rewriting… And since I believe writing is re-writing (and the same is often true of any form of high-level creativity), I struggle to release anything on its first draft, including stuff that no one will see (and maybe this is because I know someone will see it someday)
I also won’t create or do things at times if I feel like I’m not going to go 100% on it. I feel this need to do something great or I’m not going to do it at all — which in general is good, but it also stops me from doing some things when I don’t have the proper energy and might be net score negative.
Related to the above point, I sometimes also won’t do something if it’s too long because I’ll feel the need to do it A+, however long it takes.
I find it affecting my release schedule as well. Everything needs to be at a certain level for me to press publish and it’s a big reason why I’ve fallen behind in my content schedule so many damn times and have accumulated big content backlogs. But thankfully, it’s becoming easier and easier to press publish so that’s why I’m releasing more…
…except on my main channel. There’s part of me that wants to do more frequent talking-head videos without any b-roll with key informational value but I feel pain at the idea of that (need to do some healing on this) and this strange addiction to only putting videos on my main channel that have b-roll that have this low-key filmmaking vibe and feel top of the line, instead of the raw that I previously focused on before summer 2021. But then again, that’s why I have my second channel, right?1Seriously, Josh. You made a second channel for this exact reason, so you could make casual videos and put them on there. Lol.. This is partly why I haven’t posted in a month, too. Because each video feels like it needs to be a total banger and currently not having a blast with outlining 3 videos that are in the works. A little overwhelmed.
In general, I don’t think that this is an issue with focusing on quality so much as an issue with boundaries and a lack of willingness to let myself just create, even if it comes out trash. It is mostly true that how you do anything is how you do everything, but not everything you make needs to be a total fucking banger. And sometimes, I forget this.
The creative process is very nuanced and if your habits, thinking, beliefs and/or energy are off, it can be the difference between magical flow or stagnant stoppage. It’s forever a work in process. Be sure to give yourself the gift of reflecting — whether things are going terrible or amazing — because no matter where you’re at, there are always key ways you can improve within your own process or results.
I hope this helped shed some light on what I’m going through creatively right now and am actively working to improve. We’re all going through our own stuff. The difference between those who win and lose is that those who win just keep putting one foot in front of each other, over and over and over again, through the darkness and the light.
