Subscribe to Love Mondays newsletter updates via email »
LM: #310: Split your standards
Can you ship work that doesn’t meet your standards?
As Ira Glass says in a famous video, your work disappoints you because you have good taste. When you’re first starting out, you can’t live up to that standard.
That space between your abilities and taste has become known commonly as “the gap.”
WANT TO WRITE A BOOK?
Download your FREE copy of How to Write a Book »
(for a limited time)
I think it looks something like this:
Glass’s remedy for closing this gap is to “do a huge volume of work.” The challenge is, as you can see from this diagram, your abilities improve throughout a creative project, but never close the gap.
So you can’t ship your project, and so can’t get on to the next, and the next.
The solution is to split your standards. One half will heretofore be known as your standards. The other half, your “vision.” Your vision for what you’d like your work to one day be.
Your vision stays at the level your standards once were, and your standards are now attainable.
In one sense, you’re “lowering your standards,” which never sounds inspiring. But it can be, so long as you keep your vision in mind.
Book: Dopesick (Amazon) tells how America was swindled into an opium epidemic.
Cool: These plant-based sponges are biodegradable, and won’t leave microplastics on your dishes.
Best,
David
P.S. Splitting your standards helps you build the skill of shipping.
