Small Business

How to Close the Gap between Your Work and Your Ambitions

By David Goldenberg

Updated on: June 6, 2008 / 5:26 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

Ira Glass, the host of This American Life, wouldn't be my first choice as a pump-you-up-type motivational speaker. But in the above clip, he outlines a simple solution to a problem that most people have: your creative output isn't as good as you think it should be.

Here's the key part:

Most everybody I know who does interesting, creative work went through a phase of years where they had really good taste and they could tell what they were making wasn't as good as they wanted it to be--You gotta know it's totally normal and the most important possible thing you could do is do a huge volume of work. It's only by going through a huge volume of work that you'll close that gap and the work you're making will be as good as your ambitions.

(Via Kottke)