Stop pissing in the wind
I’m writing this well after Jan 1st, because by now 80% of people have blown off their resolution.
- “I’m going to lose weight”
- “I’m going to save more money”
- “I’m going to start my own business”
- “I’m going to say I’m going to have some goal this year because everyone else is doing the same”
Well, Screw that. Stop waiting. Stop making excuses for yourself. Stop saying tomorrow. Do it today. Whatever it is, just shut up and start.
I write this from my own experience. It has taken me over a year to get this blog started and it’s not even really started. Currently the layout is horrible and unorganized, the grid is atrocious, the typography has some serious weak points, the markup and CSS are quick and dirty and I have no idea how it renders in IE .
But, it’s finally up and running.
Over the past year I’ve been designing, building, redesigning, pondering, redesigning, thinking, developing, redesigning, throwing away and designing this site. I needed it to be perfect. I suppose that’s the OCD designer in me, which is a good thing — but it’s also a curse. I wanted the site to be so visually stunning and awesome; that I kept delaying it, putting it off until next week, until I’d finally realized that is the stupidest thing ever.
I’ve now lost a year I could have been learning. I could have been writing for over 12 months, which would have improved because it still sucks as much now as it did then. I should have been exchanging my ideas and having conversations with people over the past 52 weeks. Displaying how I’ve grown as a designer, developer and person over the past 365 days. But no, instead I kept putting it off until next week telling myself I needed extra time to think about some mundane concept or scope creeping myself.
Over the past year the site’s design and layout would have been tweaked and adjusted as needed because I could initially design the Most Visually Rad Shit Ever, but if it sucks to use and read – it’s pointless. No one will read it. I should be improving my site over the course of the next 18 months so it may grow into something closer to perfection. It should change and evolve along with my skills. I should be sharing the tidbits of information I learn and find with the world. In the past 3 months I’ve produced more work for myself then I did in the previous 30.
In 18 months I hope to look back at this post and say “I’m glad I shut up and just started.”
(Note: I’m not a life coach by any means; I’m just a guy who has realized life is short so make it sweet. Get stuff you want to do done so you can enjoy it.)
This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 8:39 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
3 Responses to “Stop pissing in the wind”
March 8th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Most Visually Rad Shit Ever.com?
March 8th, 2010 at 11:08 am
All good things are launched early and modified/improved over time to reflect how they’re used and, if applicable, what’s requested by users/visitors.
March 8th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
I went the same route.
Instead of using the design I had baking in the oven that contained everything but the kitchen sink (they don’t fit into ovens) … I said “F it” and went completely bare. No css. No nothing. Just markup and content.
Over the last few months it’s evolved slowly but surely into something I’m less ashamed of, with a bent on the actual content instead of all the small stuff that I obsessed over for months on end.
It’s super liberating. Don’t sweat the small shit and just get right into the important part.
By the way – your site looks great.