From: The Cult of Done by No Boilerplate
Three states of being (for any situation, work, art, draft, idea):
- Not knowing - unaware, ignorance, uncertainty and curiosity
- Action - learn, explore, takes effort, struggle and mistakes
- Done - finished, problem solved, not knowing has been converted into knowledge or skill
Accept that everything is a draft and nothing is truly perfectly done.
There is no editing stage, there is only the state of action.
Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing so just accept that you know what you’re doing even you don’t and do it.
If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it. Not throw it away, mind you, but do something else.
The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done (How to Live).
Once you’re done you can throw it away. “Art is not the art, art is never the art, art is inside you at the moment you’re creating and inside the beholder of the creation.”
Laugh at perfection, it’s boring and keeps you from being done.
People without dirty hands are wrong, doing something makes you right.
There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.
- Martha Graham
Failure counts as done, so do mistakes. Failure shows you tried, leads to knowing and growth.
Destruction is also done.