“That Perfect Thing That Was In My Head”

I reference this video of writer Ta-Nehisi Coates so often that I want to share the link here. About 1 ½ minutes in, he starts talking about the difference between “that perfect thing that was in my head” and what actually ends up on the page. If what you end up with is just 70% as good as that perfect that thing was in your head, he says, then you’ve done your job.

Essentially, Coates suggests giving ourselves permission to be imperfect. Accepting that there is, and likely always will be, a gap between what we envision and what we actually produce. That when our ideas on paper end up just a little less bright and shiny than they are in our heads, this is not a sign of having failed. That this is the process — to create an approximation of the ideal. Do that, and the job is done.