Hooray for nonjudgment!
As as graphic facilitator, I hear some variation of this statement from participants every time I do a project:
I wish I could draw, but I can’t because [fill in the blank with a disparaging remark or two]…
Well guess what. You can draw… and what you draw is good enough. Simply allow yourself to take imperfect action. You could do it when you were five years old… and you can do it now!
Taking imperfect action is all about non-judgment. Sometimes we don’t want to doodle or draw in public because “I can’t draw” or “my drawings look stupid.” We want what we create to look absolutely perfect… or at least close to what we envisioned in our heads! Sometimes, that desire for perfection means that we simply don’t take action. We prepare, we think about, we wish we could… but we never actually “do.”
Imperfect action means, to quote Nike, to “Just Do It.” It’s not going to be perfect. It may not even be amazingly gorgeous. You may need to add arrows pointing to something you drew, just to identify what it is because it’s such a hot mess of a drawing. That’s GREAT! Doing things imperfectly means you’re doing them… and that’s going to allow you to do them better in the future.
One way to practice imperfect action is to doodle your thoughts in a visual journal that nobody sees except for you. In that journal, practice expressing yourself in words and pictures. For the words and ideas that mean something special to you, start creating your own visual vocabulary and use those icons consistently to create a visual grammar that you’re used to. Remember: this is a visual journal just for you, so it doesn’t matter what it looks like! Especially to your inner critic… who may be tempted to tell you all the ways your work doesn’t stand up to Picasso’s. Mine certainly wants to. And I’ll let you in on a little secret: when my inner critic wants to get negative and critical like that, I simply send her to Starbucks and keep on drawing with a smile on my face.
Because I’m telling you: imperfect action beats perfect inaction any day!
I cannot wait to see what you draw forth
Love this post, Jeannel!
Am I bragging too much if I quote myself?
Forgive me for this:
Perfection is static. When we say, “Oh, this is perfect,” we nail it in space and time, but time elapses and space changes. Everything is moving and what is still, steady is lagging behind. For these reasons a Sketchnote has to be imperfect to be good. We want our sketchnote to inspire, instill ideas, and to allow this it needs to give space to those who are consuming it. It needs an unresolved, immaterial Yang part in its physical body. In this way we can evolve; we can take a sketchnote and use it for inspiration and, hopefully, create something new.
The Tao of Sketchnote
You are forgiven, Mauro! ;^)
Great quote!