This is a consolidated transcript from a past lecture that had accompanying slides. My hope is that the core ideas continue to resonate, despite their somewhat clumsy presentation in this format. Enjoy! -Dalton
A mentor of mine would say, “You are a work-in-progress and perfect at the same time.” This sounds a little absurd, but if you feel into it for a moment, it’s getting at something really important.
Calling everything perfect is just as unreasonable as calling everything imperfect. The concepts coexist; they imply each other. This means that any declaration that something is perfect or imperfect is subjective, and trying to delineate things into either camp is exhausting.
People do this with themselves, others, and especially their work. They worry that they are not good enough, they aren’t pretty enough, their song or painting or writing isn't perfect because they have seen other work and they know it could be better.
Most people are going through some variation of this struggle. The key realization I hope to offer here is that by expecting yourself and your work to be perfect, you are dramatically hindering your growth and your creative output—both in quantity and quality.
Imperfection and incompletion are the nature of our existence, which, from a certain perspective, is perfect. Everything is in a process of growth and death, fluctuation, vibration, polarization, ebb and flow. Nothing is ever complete, only transforming. Calling something complete is really just a declaration that you’re done engaging with it; it’s not an objective state.
If we can fully accept ourselves, the people around us, and our work as infinite works in progress, we can remove a lot of the mental and emotional judgments and just get on with the actions and creation that we’re here to do.
It’s very human to act in the interest of self-preservation. We instinctually want to be seen as perfect and have our work held in high regard because our subconscious animal brain desires status, resources, and acceptance. Part of waking up—that is, increasing your awareness—involves the usually painful process of letting those expectations go and being authentic with where you’re at.
I know I’m not the most skilled in audio engineering or the most eloquent in my phrasing, but that won't stop me from sharing ideas I find valuable. I know this isn’t perfect, and nothing I ever produce will be. But the Sisyphean task of striving to produce great work is astronomically more enjoyable when you really appreciate the beauty of imperfection—the inherent perfection of imperfection.
In short, all things are transforming; nothing in nature is complete. Any judgment that something is perfect or complete is just a subjective declaration. It’s perfectly human to make these judgments—that’s what our subconscious is designed to do—but it makes life much more stressful and hurts your work. If we realize and accept that the nature of life itself is imperfection, we open the doors to a more fruitful life and, ironically, better work.
By all means, strive to be great and produce great work, but don’t get emotionally or energetically tangled up in trying to make everything perfect for everyone. That will only make your work less authentic, less true, and less “perfect.”