Sometimes I’m looking at Flickr photos of people I’m friends with and I think to myself, “Man, I wish my photos looked like this.”
Thing is, when I go back and look through my photos I do have shots that look like the ones I’m admiring. I flagged them as losers and didn’t do anything with them.
It doesn’t have to be photos – it can be anything you write, make, build. Anything you create.
Why is that? Is it imposter syndrome?
The other day at work I was going through my company’s web site. I always look at it with a critical eye. I can’t help it. The website is something I help breathe life into, shape, build.
All I can see is the flaws. The areas I hate and want – need – to tear down and rebuild.
But that day I also spent some time looking at our competitors and partners sites – really looking at them. Content, design, photography, branding, UX… everything top to bottom. And I saw that we are actually in a great spot and that made me feel better about the mountain of work that I see in my backlog.
It’s so easy to be critical of your own work. I know I do good work, but all I can see are the misses. I don’t think there is a way to get over that.
But I don’t think I’d want to get over that. It’s the driver to be better next time. Make mistakes. Learn from those mistakes. Then make better mistakes.
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