As a creative person, you constantly hear that that you have to keep producing in order to get better. It can get kind of annoying–hearing it over and over again, but it’s true.

My own personal experience has proven this to me many times over. I remember the first website I ever designed and coded. It was a Sailor Moon fansite had too-tiny text, a repeating background of Sailor Moon paraphernalia, and a mouse cursor that was Sailor Moon’s transformation brooch.

This was over 18 years ago. And I still don’t think I’m “fantastic” (will I ever? That’s a conversation for another post), but I do know my skills have improved as a designer, developer, and all-around creative.

Going through the motions–aka, loving my “garbage”

Regardless of what field you’re in, simply doing the work (especially when you don’t feel like it) provides you with invaluable insight about your creative process and gives you the gift of experience. The more work you do now, the less you’ll hate the work you produce in the future.

It’s not an easy process. And honestly? It kind of sucks. But I think it’s totally worth it. Your early work is a marker–proof of your creative battle scars that should never be taken for granted. Everything you produce makes up the creative that you are today. Without the old, despite how bad you think it is, the current could never exist.

So even if you believe that the work you’re producing is “garbage”, “shit”, and/or “useless,” keep going. If you’re in a trough, it can only get better from here.

Let’s make something good out of this

Do you remember how terrible your creative ideas/endeavors were only a year ago compared to now? How about what your work looked like when you first began your creative journey?

Perhaps it’d be fun to have a curated collection of all of our “shit” work online, as a way to pay homage and recognize how far we’ve all come.

We’d love to hear from YOU…

If you’re down for it, tell us about your “garbage” or what you feel is one of your defining, “worst” creative pieces. Leave your answer in the comments below! 

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creative block, creativity, entrepreneur, July 2015 Issue, online business, women in business, writer's block