Being not terrible is the first goal

 With anything you start working on, you want to start from zero, eventually improve, and get amazing at it. But on the way one often loses sight of the goal and perspective, the goals get higher, aspirations rise faster than one's level of skills, there's so much anxiety and pressure upon oneself to perform. Until finally it comes crashing down, one gives up on the new exciting hobby or self-improvement thing and gets back to whatever old sad routine one was working with.

Here's the thing though. Planning to be perfect shouldn't be the goal. The first goal should be to tread water. To not be terrible at something. By doing it over and over again, looking at one's form and performance, comparing against others and under the guidance of a good master, one needs to not be awful. Not terrible, not like a noob. Consistently not terrible. It's not about good or perfect or half-assed, the only expectation is to not be terrible, to be somebody who wouldn't be laughed out of the room by not average people.

Then one improves, one learns and one's level of skills is elevated. One starts becoming almost good. The subtleties that never existed before become more apparent, the effort to get something off the ground gets lower but the total effort put in remains about the same. It feels like not much is happening underneath. Sometimes one feels like one's never going to progress.

And that's the second step.

Because you have transcended up one layer of achievement. Your goal is again to not be terrible. Don't be terribly mediocre, don't be terribly afraid, don't be terribly conventional. Dare to work around a bit, explore with techniques, understand the form. Truly try to understand what you're doing. Keep in your effort and hard work, but don't be terrible. Your goal is to not be perfect, but not terrible. it's a small step really, a tinyjump that'll need some effort but not too far away from where you currently are at.

And just like that, you cross the river.

Your achievements will not appear to be big, they will not be obvious. But in the end you'll have discovered that you are much more talented than before, quicker, better and cooler? Chiller about things, the smallest of tasks is not going to cause you anxiety anymore.

And then you discover you're terrible at being a good artist again.

The process starts again. It's just one small step that takes a long time to perfect, it's quite achievable. You just need to want it, and put in a bit of effort. To not be terrible.

Over and over and over again.