“It is impossible to get better and look good at the same time.” – Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way
What a relief! I waste so much energy fretting that my writing or whatever else is not good enough. I see all the warts, all the ways in which they should be better. I feel embarrassed and deflated. Cameron’s quote took a weight off my shoulders.
Getting better – more creative, articulate, kind, or whatever it may be – necessitates that we imagine a better self or world that doesn’t exist yet. When we imagine that better self or world, inevitably the present pales in comparison. It looks bad.
But it is precisely that painful gap between the ideal and the real that pulls us toward our highest potentials, that ultimately makes any kind of change possible.
