Everything starts inauspiciously

The doodles I post here are not the best I can do - they are the best I can do in a limited time frame, with limited tools.

This doesn't matter. I'm in version 0.1a of my morning doodles, and they are like anything else I put out into the world - quality doesn't matter as much as consistency in the early stages of any venture. I don't even know what a quality doodle might be - it could look like the Liz and Mollie graphs that I see everywhere, or xkcd, or it could look really stunning.

When you start something, you have to get used to the idea that the first 500 tries will be ugly, and know that you'll look back and be a little embarrassed. Part of trying something new is accepting that it'll be bad for longer than you want it to be. If you stick with the ugly for long enough, it gets somewhere closer to where you want it to be.

You can't expect greatness on day one. You just keep at it, trying to make it a little better each day, and accepting that you're not where you want to be... yet.

This makes it very gratifying when any of you do applaud virtually. To those of you who have been generous with your likes, thank you. It makes it easier to keep slogging through. Remember to do that with your colleagues, too - a kind word goes a long way.

Originally posted on LinkedIn in late March 2021