Done is better than perfect

Welcome to Creatives Anonymous, a weekly newsletter that explores what it means to be a modern-day creative. It inspires, encourages, and empowers readers to take back their creative power.

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Over the last few weeks, I’ve been getting back into the Artist’s Way (I got about halfway through it before I got too busy last fall and gave up on it. You can read my reflections on the first few weeks here, here, and here). This week’s chapter talked all about perfectionism, and one thing stood out to me: 

“Perfection is the refusal of letting yourself move ahead.”

A while back, I talked about the concept of Tinker Town—a place where you can go to play and experiment, but eventually, you have to leave. If Tinker Town had a motto, this would be it. 

When we fall into the perfectionism trap, we are consumed by the logical part of our brain because we always strive for improvement. We ask ourselves how we can make it better. 

When we seek perfectionism, we only see the worst in ourselves. We never look at how far we’ve come. Instead, we only see where we lack.

This is the idea of gap versus gain: We tend to focus on what we have to do versus what we’ve already done. When we feel like we haven’t made progress, we focus on how far we have left to go versus how far we’ve already come. 

Or if you’re an overachiever like me, you also can’t focus on how far you’ve already come because you keep setting the bar higher for yourself (sorry, not sorry). 

As a result, we stay in our head, plotting and planning as a way to procrastinate taking action. In other words, perfectionism prevents us from moving out of our heads and into action. 

This happens for a couple of reasons. First, we need a safe space to create. The biggest misconceptions around creativity are that it has to be wired in our genes, we need a creative muse, or we simply have natural talent. While all those can contribute, the real secret is creating a space where you can show up consistently. 

A safe space looks like a judgment-free zone where you allow yourself to be a beginner and surround yourself with people who will be supportive instead of critical. 

When you have a safe space to create, you’re more likely to take risks, and the more risks you take, the more empowered you feel, especially when those risks pay off. 

Secondly, perfectionism prevents us from being brave. We start to feel jealousy when we watch someone a few steps ahead of us. But what we are experiencing is fear. 

Jealousy is a mask for fear because we aren’t brave enough to take the first step. And because we get too caught up in our heads and unable to move forward, we have difficulty breaking free to take the first step.  

And lastly, the more we tinker with something, the closer we get to a point of diminishing returns. When done in excess, tweaking and iterating can make something worse off than it was before. We need to know when to stop before we get carried away and over-engineer. In other words, we need to quit while we’re ahead.  

It’s safe to say that we all have some perfectionist tendencies in our creative practice. 

Whether it’s re-reading and re-working a chapter of a novel (guilty) or refusing to say a creative work is finished because it “needs something” (also guilty), perfectionism is the thief of creativity. 

To combat that, I’ve adopted my own motto: done is better than perfect. 

Done means you’ve done your absolute best. It means it’s good enough. Done means it’s finished, and you can move on. 

(Especially as I’m finishing this newsletter about 9 hours before it’s supposed to be sent out….)

Done does not mean you sacrifice quality. It just means you take something to the point of diminishing returns. Only you know what that point is. For me, it’s a gut feeling.

The reality is that you can always make changes and tweaks to your work. One could argue that you’ll never be finished. But for the sake of your creative practice, you need to be. 

Sure, you could spend another two hours editing a piece of writing or days adding finishing touches to a painting, but what will you truly gain from it? You don’t gain anything. (on the other hand, you lose a lot of things: brain cells, sleep, your sanity….). 

The longer you hold onto something, the more you stay stuck. And the more you stay stuck, the more you inhibit your inner artist. 

Don’t do that to your inner artist. Do it messy. Do it scared. Do your best. Nothing will ever be perfect, but maybe that’s the point.

CREATIVE CORNER

• 🎞️ What I’m Consuming: I’ve been rewatching a lot of my favorite movies and movies that inspire me. My latest rewatches were The Princess Diaries and The Social Network.

• 💡 What I’m Loving: I did part 2 of my brand photoshoot location last week in Pioneer Square and King Street Station, and it felt like a fashion editorial. Can’t wait to see the final proofs.

• 🎨 What I’m Working On: A cross-contour homework assignment for my drawing class—sketching our grocery list.

• 💭 Weekly Musing:

Thank you 💕

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I’m so grateful for all of your support!

Alexa Phillips is a writer, brand strategist, and multi-passionate creative. She is the founder and Chief Brand Architect at Bright Eyes Creative, a creative studio that helps creative brand leaders become tastemakers with content-driven brands.

Where to find me:

• Check out my new offer, Media Multiverse Plotting Calls, where I can help you plan your entire media ecosystem for 2025 in 60 minutes.

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