Niente. No Good. Rien. Nada.
This is image is from my favorite authors, creatives, designers, creators, thinkers, overall visionaries, Bruno Munari. An Italian jack of all creative trades. From his book Supplement to the Italian Dictionary. A visual voyage into hand gestures and their meanings in Italy.
I would say I often pick up my books and flip through them, but I guess it’s not every day. But this day in particular, I picked this one up and flipped to this page.
A typical Neopolitan gesture, Munari says. Niente. I can’t. A second-nature creative gesture, I’d say.
Almost the catch 22 or the shadow side of big thinking is our doubt. Our everyday creative niente.
My neinte isn’t doing the work. I can make all the work. My idea well is never dry. It’s letting the work live publicly. Somewhere where it can be interpreted, perceieved, felt or judged by others. That’s where I keep myself in this loop of trying to perfect thing to always ensure that each idea lands exactly perfectly right. But by the time I think the idea is ready I’ve lost the push that can get me through my niente loop. And there I am still stuck.
But the funny thing is it just takes one little switch. Awareness. Attention to that we have the power to lower that pointer finger. Drop the idea into the creative world, let it go, free it in its good enough form, and let that creative gravity pull it through. The important part is for it to keep enough momentum. It’s not about that circle being more perfect, it’s about letting it go when it needs to go so it can make the loop.
Here we are in our creative niente loops.
We can either keep moving. Or we drop back down and get stuck inside.
You can see in the motion, good enough is moving.
In the second graph the down arrows are over perfecting. I can’t. Niente.
I like this loop and rollercoaster analogy of getting through the niente, the I can’ts. It’s letting go of good enough and pushing you through. To feel that fear and to do it anyway. That’s the thrill. Pushing past our own niente. Putting that pointer finger down, the one that always points back to you and letting it chill.
Moving that gesture into your own all good, ok, thumbs up, keep going.
Good enough is always better than staying stuck in the niente loop. The point is to ride that roller coaster of creativity, not to get stuck on the ride. Life is just that, a rollercoaster, and the more momentum we can catch, the more enjoyable the loops really become. And those loops are not stopping. Life and creativity will have plenty more.
One small switch
And it’s good enough to get going.