"Ideas are like rats in your house. You can sit there watching them run around, or you can choose one, and step on it until it's dead."
This is a paraphrased quote from Jerry Seinfeld that I heard once and it changed the way I pursue creative projects.
As creatives our heads are often filled to the brim with ideas. Ideas about how to improve the world around us. Ideas about new aesthetics we'd like to experiment with. Ideas about new projects to begin, etc.
We all know somebody who always has some Big New Idea™, but the next time you see them, they've simply conjured up another Big New Idea™ rather than pursuing the last one.
Just pick a rat and step on it.
Do not pick up your foot until it's dead.
Don't worry about whether the project is too small, or too big.
Pick a project. Start it. Finish it. Repeat.
One of my favorite articulations of this way of thinking.
I'd highly recommend studying Jerry Seinfeld's career as inspiration for your own. Much like designers or artists, we often (mistakenly) assume that these people have some gift. "Well of course he became a famous comedian, he's a funny guy".
But Jerry Seinfeld became the best in his field through pure discipline and determination. When you hear him talk about crafting a joke, you see he has a meticulous process - a structured way of thinking that he applies to his art over and over again. He learned this process from studying people he admired, and from good old fashioned practice. It reminds me so much of the way good designers work. When you've put in the hours, you see the patterns that others don't. You have a process that you can depend on to get you to the results you're after.
- Jacob