Way too often, I find myself struggling to be perfect, especially with my creative side, which is mostly writing and photography. This struggle causes me much self-criticism, frustration, and leaves me with too many unfinished pieces that I consider “not good enough”. There is some truth to the fact that not everything I create is going to turn out good enough – the unfocused shot, or the poem that goes nowhere. Yet…
A little more than a year ago, I read an article about the
phrase “done is better than perfect” in which the author argued that we need to
accept our flaws in order to accomplish anything of value.That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do our best and
strive to get better at our craft, but that we need to step back and accept our
present limitations as part of our creative and personal growth.
With this in mind, I challenged myself to write a haiku each day for the year 2021. I knew that I would not be able to produce a ‘perfect’ haiku every day and that I would need to accept the “not as good” ones just as I would the “good” ones. For me, it would not be easy. The shame of less than perfect has always been a self-set hurdle that I rarely clear – I knew that I would struggle to push it away, or to summon up the strength to leap over it.
It’s not that I wasn’t giving myself the chance for a great haiku - I had an entire day to perfect an idea, but as many creatives know, some days the inspiration just don’t come. Yet, perfect or not, good or bad, the point was to finish the day’s haiku. I could always go back at another time and work on it again if I wanted to.
And that is what I did. I came up with 362 haiku in 365 days. I missed three days with no other excuse than on those days, there was nothing left for me to give - I had hit a wall, or more to the point, experienced creative exhaustion. I am not disappointed though - I still finished the year, even that was not perfect!
I learned a lot in the course of this personal challenge - mostly I learned about creativity and about myself.
- - Inspiration can’t be forced. One can’t make a fire without a spark. I learned to have patience with myself and to trust that inspiration will come when its ready to present itself and I am ready to accept it. This waiting is an important part of the journey.
- - No matter how flawed, every creation is special, just because it exists. Creating something where there once was nothing is a celebration in itself. Nothing is insignificant!
- - Finished doesn’t always mean finished! Although I may have finished the haiku, I can always go back and rework it. What is important is that I gave that day’s inspiration a root, and like a seedling, it now has the chance to grow.
- - I felt a sense of accomplishment and confidence at the end of the day, and at the end of the year. It helped me to know that I could do this! To be honest, it wasn’t easy. Every day was as much of an opportunity to give up as it was to continue on.
- - Accepting imperfection in what I create, is also an act of accepting imperfection in myself. Although I am flawed, I still have worth.
Like most things though, learning is just the start. Putting what I have learned in practice, and keeping it in practice, is the hard work. That is the real journey.
The following are a few of the haiku I wrote during my challenge. I have left them unedited – maybe imperfect, but still worthy, and deserving this space just the way they are.
new year’s day
sorting the pieces
of a new puzzle
waking up
to the thought of you
moon light on the wall
saturday morning
coffee and cold pizza
a poem’s last lines
quarter moon
the stray cat comes a few
steps closer
chewing cud
not all goats
do yoga
the fallen tree
I am sitting where
I used to climb
someone older
my reflection in a
storefront window
