Embrace Imperfection:
Mold Your Own Clay
Every quarter in our UChicago Science Communications course, we kick off the first class with a “write” of passage.
“You have 30 minutes to write a cold, rough draft. Right here, right now. Go!,” I tell the room full of students.
A gust of panic blows through the room. There are audible gasps. One time someone even clenched their chest in shock and agony.
And then they wrote.
The hardest part with any writing, project, or idea is getting started and accepting that the first go of it is going to be bad. It might be downright awful. But you have to start somewhere. Perfectionism is on the rise, according to health research, and mental health is on the fall. Most of us are so afraid to fail, we don’t ever begin.
Over the span of a quarter, our students workshop and dissect their writing. They take that rough blob of clay from day one and mold it into something clear, visual, and beautiful.
What can you start today? How does embracing that it’s going to be bad help you take the first step?
Happy sculpting!
