Warning: This deceptive thinking could be killing your progress

Ever skipped down a blogpost feeling that the writer would have written it easily?

Ever saw a jaw-dropping painting thinking that the artist might have made it effortlessly?

Well, until recently I felt as if someone has thrown a glass of hot water on my face while I saw the attention-grabbing works of others.

You know why?

Because deep down I felt that I never will be able to bring the same charisma in my work.

But not anymore.

Now I know that if something looks lovely, then there have been many struggling hours behind it. If a piece looks polished and finished, then the worker would have toiled a lot before getting that beauty. The truth is that behind every finished product, there’re a terrific level of striving.

But it’s a blunder that we don’t see how much a person has failed or got rejected before finally showcasing his best work. Rarely we hear guys talking about their failures or ham-fisted attempts at projects before getting a breakthrough.

“I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Thomas Edison

Johannes Haushofer, an assistant professor who teaches psychology and public affairs at Princeton University, published his CV of failures – because he wanted to tell that everyone fails at times on his career route – no matter however successful.

“Most of what I try fails, but these failures are often invisible, while the successes are visible,” he wrote.

It’s the same when we talk about making our art or craft or work. We fail many times before we strike upon something beautiful.

But when we see something awe-inspiring, we don’t think about the amount of struggle that goes into it. Ignoring the behind-the-scenes mistakes and iterations, we instantly wish to bring the same level of quality in our work and feel low when the path ahead appears overfull with hitches.

Time and again I have felt that when I do a lot of bad writing, a little good writing trickles out. To make great things, I feel, we require to go through a mountain of low-quality stuff. Separating the wheat from the chaff, as they say.

Though I know this is no carte blanche to avoid stormy efforts. Because if you want to win the race, in the beginning also you run as fast as you run when near the finishing line.

Before we see ourselves making an astonishing improvement on our passion path, we’re required to give blood-squeezing efforts into it.

But comparing our unfinished works with the revised and mistakes-removed masterpieces of others can sabotage our efforts.