I think I have to agree with this person: "Since nothing is ever 'perfect' nothing is ever really DONE." (cassianne, http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2010/02/finish-the-projects-youve-started-or-call-an-end-to-them.html) I can finish projects, give them away, sell them, whatever but because I know there was something else I could've done to make it better, it's not finished.
That has to stop.
I could throw away all of what I own, sit myself down at the gates of the city with a begging bowl and I still wouldn't be free as long as I kept that attitude. More than any physical item, it's this attitude of "It could've been better, there's more I could do" that's pulling me under. Nothing will ever be perfect. Nothing. Most things aren't even going to be great. But everything can be finished if I just let them go.
No one's asking me to do great things. Hell, no one even knows I exist, really: when you compare my one life against the other 6 billion on this planet, I'm a speck. There's no pressure here except that which I am applying.
Let it go.
It's time to embrace the great tragedy of art: what is inside our heads will never see daylight just as we envision it. The act of creation is going to change our vision. Yes, it may be lesser. It will be flawed. But it will be something where there was nothing before and that alone should be reason to create it.
Okay, now I'm starting to babble. Here's hoping I can let go of the "just a little more to do" attitude.
And here's the thing -- no one else can see what's in your mind's eye. So what you produce is going to look beautiful to us, flaws and all. If you don't tell us it's not quite perfect, how would we know?
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