Last week, I asked this simple question on Twitter:

The results were staggering, but not surprising.

We tend to over edit ourselves during the creative process and it’s a colossal mistake. Why?

Because you’re usually the worst judge of things you create.

No one really knows perfectly if what they’ve made is good or not. We’re too close to the project to see it for what it is.

Take Jon Bon Jovi for example.

He didn’t want to put the song “Living on a Prayer” on their album. He didn’t think it was good.

Richie Sambora, his guitar player, convinced him to do it and it ended up being their most popular song of all time.

There are two takeaways from this:

  1. Don’t self edit so harshly, especially during the early stages of a project.
  2. Get you a Richie Sambora. You need someone who can tell you the truth.

You kill good ideas when you expect them to be great too soon.

[Tweet “You kill good ideas when you expect them to be great too soon.”]

And once they’re done, you can’t see them for what they really are and need community to tell you.

If you remember that, you’re halfway there …

P.S. I wrote a book about being awesome at what you do. You should read it.