- Visual I.D.E.A.s Newsletter
- Posts
- How to overcome your impossible standards
How to overcome your impossible standards
In this issue: the 2-Day rule, a simple hack to fight perfectionism, friendly reminders, and the power of routines.
š¤ INTERESTING
Avoid the second mistake.
Inspired by James Clearās book, Atomic Habits.
Now the trick is how?
The best piece of advice Iāve heard from James Clear is, āreduce the scope to maintain the habit.ā
Most of my life Iāve held almost impossible to meet standards, for myself and others. While this was useful to me for a season, I realized over time those standards distorted my creative output into an all or nothing approach.
The harsh truth is that a balanced life doesnāt mean balanced days. Balance comes in the form of an averaging of your days.
There will be days when I only get a few push-ups or a brisk walk in for exercise. There are days when I get home so late that I only have enough time with the kids for a short cuddle and bedtime story.
The point is to embrace the imperfect messiness of it all. Miss a day, youāre human. Try your best to get back on the bike day 2, even if it means you donāt go as far forward as youād like.
A little progress is still progress.
š DESIGN
I have a simple hack to fight my perfectionist tendencies:
Draw on paperā¦with a pen.
This practice forces you to:
Stop being precious
Be more efficient with your lines
Avoid wasting time erasing to make things perfect
š® ENCHANTING
Friendly reminder of the day.
I try to think of my visual metaphors as āfriendly remindersā to the reader (and myself). I hope they FEEL true, like a familiar echoā¦that somehow got lost in the sea of relentless noise.
This one is a simple reminder to myself that the negative stuff we each face day in and day out are what help us appreciate the positive stuff.
If you like friendly reminders, I posted a bunch more to start the week here.
š§ ANALOGY
Perception vs reality of routines
I used to hate routines. But nothing gets you to love routines faster than having kids. š
š¤ WHAT IāM READING NOW
I came across this short, quirky book the other day and I found it beautifully bizarre and haunting. You have to like darker stuff (which if you follow my work, might not be your taste), but I found myself fascinated by Fran Krauseās āThe Creeps.ā
In this book, Fran illustrates fears submitted to him by readers of his popular web comic Deep Dark Fears. It really got me thinkingā¦do I have any bizarre fears like this? Do you?
Rate this week's newsletter:Your feedback helps shape the best visual newsletter possible. |
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/bfa8f1be-0f50-4059-81c4-27dd2bb19f4f/Twitter_Profile_Picture_Cut_Out_v2.png)
If you'd like to join the 16,656 subscribers getting Visual I.D.E.A.s straight into their inbox, subscribe below for free:
Thanks for reading! Reply any time with feedback or questions.
I made this newsletter with beehiiv, my favorite tool for easily creating and growing a newsletter.
When youāre ready, Iāve built a course to teach Thinking in Visual Metaphors: Join the Wait List
Reply