You judge everything you make as not good enough
Nothing you make ever satisfies you — you judge everything you create as not good enough, dismissing your work as soon as it is made, unable to feel it is any good. The relentless harshness of your own judgment poisons the pleasure of making and often stops you finishing or sharing, since nothing ever measures up to your merciless assessment.
This relentless dissatisfaction with your own work is a heavy thing to carry, and I want to help you tell the harshness from genuine discernment. The harsh judge is not the same as good taste — good taste tells better from worse and guides improvement, while the harsh judge merely condemns, offering no path forward, only the verdict that nothing is enough, so learn to tell them apart, keeping the taste that improves the work and quieting the judge that only wounds it. You judge your work against an impossible ideal — measuring it against the perfect version in your head or the finest masterworks, a standard everything real must fall short of, so change the measure to what is actually achievable, and much you dismissed proves in truth to be good. And let the work be seen by kinder eyes than your own — a trusted, fair reader often sees worth your harshness blinded you to, and their balanced view helps correct your distorted one. You are not your work's reliable judge while the harsh judge rules. What does the harsh voice tell you about your work?
What changes unlock by starting
- You distinguish the harsh judge from good taste
- You keep the taste that improves, quiet the judge that wounds
- You judge against a fair, achievable standard
- You let kinder eyes than your own see the work fairly