We’re always looking at the finished product
We can be so hard on ourselves. We see the world and make comparisons. Judge ourself on what other people are doing. We often forget that we’re often looking at the finished product though. The result of a process we don’t see.
Would you take back the pieces of wood and the bag of screws you brought from IKEA because they don’t allow you to display your books? Of course not. You know that work needs to be done before that happens.
When we see other people’s success and the things they produce, we often overlook this. We can also judge our own output far too early in the process. We see the result of the work. The things that were born out of adapting to setbacks and failures.
We see the finished product and often expect the same results instantaneously. That process I mentioned is so important though. It’s the things we learn and the things we do to make things happen. While luck can be a factor, the right process should vastly improve your chances of succeeding.
We can take two important things from this.
Firstly, we can stop being so hard on ourselves. We can remember that we’re not only on unique journeys, we’re at unique stages within them. We can see what other people have done and be inspired. Make the right changes.
The second thing to do is think about your process. Do you even have one? Could you explain and justify the things you do to make things happen, whatever they are? Have a think about this and what you could do to improve things.