the only motivational quote that helped

For some reason, I don’t find motivational quotes particularly inspiring or helpful to read (unfortunately for me). There is however one quote that I did find incredibly inspiring, so much that I had it written on my wall as a reminder. You might’ve heard of it, it’s The Gap by Ira Glass:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have.

We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story [replace story with whatever you do]. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

I found this helpful because of this specific line:

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.

It made me realize that paradoxically, being disappointed in your own work could actually be a good sign. It means that there’s still potential to grow and it means that your vision or taste, is still strong. Not everyone has this vision and this is a skill in itself.

It’s kind of the opposite end of the spectrum of the Dunning-Kruger effect, where people who have limited skills in an area don’t have the ability to recognize that they’re not particularly talented, so they overestimate their own capabilities. I’d be suspicious if there was a moment where I felt entirely content with my work.

Take home messages:

• Realize that there could be a positive in being disappointed in your own work. It means your vision and taste are quite developed. Your skillset is just catching up, but it has a direction and potential for growth.

• Be disciplined and do a lot of creative work in order to bridge the gap.

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