Strive for Perfection, Embrace Imperfection

There’s an interesting dichotomy at play when creating a business plan for your creative business where we need all the specificity we can muster up as well as all the flexibility we can give in order to embrace the true benefits of the work. Occasional naysayers to this kind of work will say things like “But you’re an artist – don’t you have to go with the flow? How can you have a plan?” and lowkey, they’re right. But only in so much as if you grip your plan too tightly, you’ll lose sight of the benefits that simply come from doing the work whether or not you even accomplish the specific goals you’ve set for yourself.

I often tell artists who are finding bumps in the road with the work in terms of process or understanding that they already have a leg up over most of their competitors who are still playing the waiting game.

Simply focusing the work and engaging with it week to week is more than likely a hell of a lot more beneficial than what they were doing before.

I’m hard on our clients because I believe that we have an obligation to strive for perfection. “Perfection” as I see it is simply an unyielding effort and focus on the work at hand that doesn’t allow you to back down from fulfilling the objectives you so desperately want to accomplish.

It’s the simple act of striving for perfection that allows you to set standards and expectations for yourself on a week to week basis and for your business as a whole.

The next part is probably the trickier of the two because as you strive for perfection, it’s remarkably helpful to embrace all the imperfection that follows suit. You can’t actually control your destiny and within our industries, luck does play a major role which is exactly why we don’t dwell on the uber specific goals at hand in terms of “did I succeed or fail?” but rather the probable momentous steps forward you’ve taken from simply engaging with an organized, structured way of working in the first place.

There are many reasons why letting go of the need for perfection can be difficult, but prime among them is the fact that you’re putting in such tremendous work as is that then feeling like you’re “settling” can be disappointing or even pointless. However, as fru fru as it may sound, focusing on what you have materialized and finding ways to truly appreciate the good currently pouring from your business will train you to appreciate the complexity of the work as is and allow you to continue to strive for perfection in all aspects while embracing the imperfection that is sure to follow. Cause who knows…maybe the imperfection is perfection? Just call me Lama Morgan.

Also by Artist’s Strategy:

Landing Your Dream Job: Inspired by Fantasy

Addressing Unknowns: Questions Lead To Answers

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