I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how positive and negative feedback impacts the creative process. Over the past month, I’ve noticed a certain pattern start to emerge. 

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If you’re reading this, you may or may not be aware that I’ve written every day so far in 2023. My original theory was that if I write every day, regardless of how much or how little I write, I will build enough momentum and eventually write something decent.

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However, what I’ve found instead is that the creative process doesn’t quite work like this, especially when you’re publishing material on a daily basis. Instead, it goes something like this:

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1. You create just to create. You don't have a strong purpose yet, and you haven’t really developed much of a style. But you decide to share your creations with the world anyway.

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2. Eventually, you get a bit of positive feedback. Someone saw your creation and liked it. This gives you a surge in creative energy—you’re ready to take on the world and create your next masterpiece.

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3. Now this is where the biggest mistake happens—you start to think to yourself, “I might actually be pretty good at this.” Regardless of whether or not that’s true, that line of thinking tends to impact your creative process. You either a) think you now know what people will like, or b) you start feeling pressure to perform at a higher level now that people have told you that they enjoyed what you created.

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4. Running off the energy high of step 2, you put more of your creations into the world, aaaaand…nobody responds or reacts to what you’ve created. When you were at step 1, you were fine with this because you weren’t even sure if you were any good at what you were creating. But now you’re at step 4. People in step 2 told you that they liked your work. So what the hell happened?

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5. Unknowingly, you revert back to step 1. However, this time, your skin is a little thicker and you’re a little braver than before, which means that your purpose and style are a little more defined.

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While I’m sure every creator’s experience is different, this has generally been the process that I’ve observed over the past month or so. I feel as if I’ve gone through the above cycle 3 or 4 times now. Despite the fact that I’m fully aware of it, this process is a necessary hill to climb, a Sisyphean feat of repetition that refines my skill as a creator. 

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So if you’re a creator, you might be asking yourself, how do I avoid this cycle then?

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In an ideal world, it’d be great if the pattern was just a constant repetition of steps 1 and 2, where you’re creating just to create and receiving positive feedback all the time. But even Michael Jordan lost 366 times in his career. There’s no such thing as perfection. You have to create some duds as a necessary rite of passage.

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So the short answer is: you can’t avoid this cycle. Just embrace it. 

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And the next time you hit step 4, when you’ve created something you’re really proud of but nobody seems to care, remind yourself how far you’ve come since you started at step 1.