After reading an article a few times, that really inspired me and touched my heart… I discovered it had been edited and revised more than 39 times.
Something I have thought about many times during the past few months.
It’s so quick to snap a photo, and most of the articles I write take minutes… sometimes less than 20 to 30 minutes to write. It’s only the really loooong articles that I write that take more than an hour or so. Most of those I seldom publish and they are captured only in my journal. *Grin*
The reason is, I seldom get time to re-read, edit and revise them. *Smile*
The articles we do publish and share, are edited and revised a few times, and even then after publishing we’ll still find a mistake or a spelling error, and so we have to correct, edit and re-publish.
Finding a picture or editing the photos takes even longer… I’m a terrible photographer and don’t even have a camera anymore, I just use my phone, and I tend to take 100s of photos, so I get at least a few nice one’s. Going through them and editing is even more time consuming than editing the copy, (text).
While I was watching my daughter make Beaded Christmas Balls, I thought about this even more… and asked her to teach me how to make one. The first one took me 30 minutes… the second an hour… and in that same time she made at least four. *Grin* When Jess wasn’t helping me, she made three in less than an hour.
Jess has made a lot of Beaded Christmas Balls, so she’s had a lot of practice… and for once, we are actually starting early enough… usually we run out of time… and energy… and sometimes our projects are left for the following year to complete.
In today’s age of instantaneous… must be finished in record time and be perfect, I wonder if we aren’t forgetting how to enjoy our work, and take pride in a job well done.
Do we even allow ourselves enough time to do something really well, not matter how much effort is required… and if it isn’t right… do we consider that we haven’t failed, that we just need to revise, edit… rework something, so that even if it isn’t perfect, it is our very best.
That our initial experience is enhanced.
I remember the first time I wrote something from my heart… I thought it was childish and immature… and well it probably was. Unfortunately, most of my early ‘writing’ was lost or deleted.
Now if something isn’t quite right, I re-read it. Leave it. Edit it. Work it. Revise it. Leave it. Re-read, edit, rework and revise again. Until I’m happy to share it. It’s never perfect… however, I’m often happy that I did my very best. *Smile*
While I was editing and publish I read this quote… and thought it really appropriate to share. *Grin*
