The Gap

I found this video Ira Glass (of This American Life fame) via the blog of Danny Gregory (an artist and inspirer extraordinaire).

In this podcast, Ira Glass talks about "the gap" between the "good taste" you have in your field of creative passion and the kind of work that is produced when you're a beginner at the craft.  His solution to close the gap: "Do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work.…It's only through producing a large volume work that you will be able to close the gap." It's awesome advice.

I know that I sometimes get impatient with wanting my work to match the vision I have for it.

Yet I also know that I do get better with practice — be it my writing, my art, or being the best person I can be. And I know that I help my practice along when I have a regular practice in which to, well, practice. 

Part of the reason I love Julia Cameron's morning pages (three longhand pages of whatever you want to write, written first thing in the morning) is that it develops the muscle for practice, for producing pages no matter how you feel and in all kinds of weather.

I love that in a month of doing morning pages you fill a notebook. It's a visual reminder how a small but steady practice can produce a volume of work. One page at a time. One day at a time.

Tell me, what practice could you put in place to bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to be?

P.S. Here are the links to the other parts (part 3 is above) of this storytelling podcast by Ira Glass:

part 1

part 2

part 4