The Restless Struggle
Over the past few years, I’ve realized any artistic person, be it a photographer, musician, painter or architect, must commit themselves to an uncomfortable and frustrating, yet endless struggle.
One of the first people to describe this to me was Bruce Strong, who sketched out the graph I have reproduced below. As he said, “You’re raising the bar for yourself, attempting to produce a higher quality of work, but you aren’t quite there. You don’t want to rest on what you’re capable of, but you aren’t able to produce what you want to – and you find yourself very frustrated. My advice – don’t give up. Keep pushing yourself.”
His wisdom was an eye-opening moment for me. Bruce had effortlessly summed up so much of the personal struggle I was going through with my work.
However,what I have since realized, is that, as creative people,we should never, ever feel comfortable with our work. We should always be raising the bar, never feel content, always feel frustrated and wanting more from ourselves. In doing so, we consistently make our work better, push ourselves farther and improve our industry.
I was recently discussing a peer’s work with a good friend, and while we both agreed our friend’s work was good, we couldn’t quite put a finger on what we did not enjoy about it; and then we realized, they were content with their work. They were complacent towards improvement, they showed no progression over time, they were happy with what they produced. And this in itself was enough to turn us away from their work.
It is the life blood of a creative person to push themselves, push their industry, show they are striving for more.
Since that conversation with Bruce, I’ve heard these words echoed again and again. Legendary story teller, Ira Glass, explained it well in this series of videos (in four parts).
Through his blog and twitter account, Chase Jarvis is a constant supporter of this belief, and his work shows it. He has also referenced Seth Godin, who I have recently become a fan of. The recent Michael Jordan ad by Nike stresses this ideology.
So the point is: push yourself. Don’t settle for being content. Don’t rest for a moment. Explore areas of your industry that scare you or that you don’t think you are good at and work in those areas. Stretch your capabilities, and fail endlessly.
In the end, it will make your happier with your work, and with yourself.