On moving beyond perfectionism & making something from soul

This painting is one of the pieces that taught me the most about letting go of perfectionism.

I thought it looked rubbish during the process and I wondered why I was even bothering to paint. Thoughts like ‘this is shit’, ‘I don’t have the time to paint enough to actually get good at it’, ‘if it’s not going to be brilliant then what’s the point?’, going around in my head.

(Oh, poor ego!!)

I nearly scrunched it up loads of times.

But I had this almost sneaky idea… a curiosity to see what would happen if I didn’t let those unsupportive voices stop me.

So I kept going. It felt rebellious.

And then I actually started to enjoy the process of it! I felt REAL creative power, not just the pressure of perfection, getting it right and turning out with something technically ‘good’.

I was making something from soul.

I remind myself of this lesson all the time, because the voices are usually there. And that’s okay, they can do their thing. They’re just trying to keep me safe from failing, because some part of our brains sees stuff like this as a ‘life or death’ thing. But thankfully its not, and I choose to keep moving through them whenever possible, to keep the brush dancing on the page.

Whether we or anyone else likes the outcome of our creative work at the end of the day (or not) is often beside the point.

Did we show up for that which our heart is calling us to? Did we truly express ourselves? Did we practice allowing spirit to move through us? Did we simply have fun and play?

It’s quite cool to me that after it all, strangers buy this print from my Etsy shop and it might go on their wall. I didn’t make this piece to sell, I wasn’t even selling art at the time I made it. But it’s another little puzzle piece in the magic of it all for me.

(And if you’re interested, here’s the link to view or purchase this print, or you can check out my full Etsy shop BeckyRuiStudio here.)