Perfection is the Enemy of Progress
Winston Churchill stated that “perfection is the enemy of progress.” Perfection is something many artists get tangled up in. Striving for it and hating everything that they create because it isn’t perfect. Some get so trapped by it that they stop creating all together due to the self-deprecating thoughts and hateful emotions surrounding that elusive goal.
Some of us are worse than others. I also have a thing with perfectionism. My style is photo-realism. It has to look like a photograph. There is inherently a good deal of perfection, or the idea of it, in that style. However, I do not let it cripple me. But for many, perfection and anxiety go hand in hand. Art becomes more of a dreaded activity than a pleasurable one.
So, if perfection is the enemy of progress, but you happen to be wrapped up in the pursuit of it, how do you let it go?
First of all, get it through your head that nobody’s perfect. I’m not perfect. You’re not perfect. Absolutely no one is perfect. Secondly, it is impossible for imperfect people to create perfection. It’s just not going to happen. Think of a cake pan with a dent in it. There is no way possible that the dented cake pan will ever create a cake that doesn’t have that dent.
