Create Messy

So, you’ve got an idea that you think may solve the challenges of your department. Or you’ve got something in your gut that says write the book. Or maybe your hand and your heart wants you to finally pick up the canvas or guitar that’s sitting in the back of your closet.

And oh, how you fantasize about how your little idea propelled big profits for your organization. And those luscious daydreams of how your book, your writing, touched people enough to tell all their friends about it. And no doubt about it, once you pull out the canvas and brush, the art will flow and your kids will fight about who gets to hang that gem in their room. All so perfect.

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Days and weeks and then years pass and the idea never gets beyond your own head as it travels with you to and from work. And the canvas and guitar are content keeping your old shoes company in the darkness of that little room. The writing pad you bought to jot down your prose, well, it’s working swell as it captures your weekend to-do lists.

This is me too.

What is it that stops us dead in our tracts from embracing that magic inside of us that gives us joy at the mere thought of following through, or sharing our creativity? Top on the list: Our ego’s refusal to accept anything short of perfection. It won’t be perfect. It’ll messy and so far from “perfection” (whatever diluted concept that is.) So, let’s flip it around.

Whatever you create, write, draw, strum WILL be perfect – there is perfection in the effort!! There is perfection in the messy. The goal, as our friends at Nike say, is to “just do it!”

When I look at most of what I do, it’s messy. First drafts and second drafts. Then there’s brainstorming – and that’s really messy. As a good friend of mine ordered me to do when I was looking at the different hats I wear – like many of us in this economy – he said, “earn messy.”

The reality is that it’s one messy step at a time. It’s sharing your idea at work until somebody listens to you. It’s writing a paragraph a day and accepting that it will come together when it comes together. It’s turning your computer off as tune your guitar and make the first messy swish on the canvas.

It’s declaring NON-PERFECTION and finding success in your simple, pure and messy efforts. It’s accepting messy and perfection.

​Go Innovate and Create Messy!