Weekly Recap #19: "Don't try so hard"
I was always a huge fan of Jerry Lewis growing up, & one of my favorite films of his was "The Disorderly Orderly". One line from the movie that stuck out to me as a kid that I still think of all the time is, "Don't try so hard!" This line is repeated to Mr. Lewis' character repeatedly throughout the movie due to the fact that his character is continually getting into precarious situations because he literally trying so hard to do his job well & doesn't take the time to realize that his methods aren't working out & negatively affecting everyone around him. I can often times be a bit of a perfectionist in so many areas of my life, & while its a great goal to want present the best you can offer, you can sometimes not present your best self in the process. This is a lesson that I've had to learn over the years & that I'm actually seeing as a character trait in my sons already. We all have a problem with getting too tunnel visioned, & the craziest thing about this from a parents point of view, is its giving me a good look at my own flaws. Its a little discouraging to see your kids reflect negative personality traits that you have, & it can also be quite a rude awakening. So what am I trying to do about this? Well, since I'm seeing this character trait quite often in my boys, I'm a lot more in tune to when I start to do it myself. This past week I started to notice myself going into that mode when my son Lincoln asked me to make him a pretend sword out of paper. I was so focused on what I was working on, that I at first ignored his question, then I paused to listen to his question, only to overthink what I would have to do to make him some kind of crazy sword, and that was followed by another look at my tunnel vision & perfectionism to finally think about his simple request SIMPLY, & we came up with a great little sword together. After brainstorming with Lincoln & seeing how much fun he & his siblings were having with the paper swords I saw an opportunity to vlog about the situation, only to create a vlog that was a little out of focus on the takes that made the most sense. Here I was again at a perfectionist cross road. Do I actually take the time to make this video perfect, or do I let it go & just view it as a simple, honest vlog with some flaws. Before I started this blog I looked at other creator's content with such a critical eye, & would always get irritated when things were out of focus. Now, as someone that is new to creating vlog content from "selfie" angles I'm realizing how often some of your takes can be out of focus, or how the takes that are in focus might not have the best delivery. So what happens is you get stuck sometimes having to use the better content where you don't stumble over your words or run into bad audio issues from random noises or other x-factors at the cost of some out of focus takes. The fact of the matter is, this vlogging thing is a lot harder than it looks! Creating good content & viewing your own content with a critical eye is pretty tough to do & can make you not want to release any of your content period. So I apologize for the judgment I passed upon other vloggers in the past, without first trying my hand at this craft. I have so much more respect & understanding of how difficult it is now. I did end up releasing the video with the paper swords & received some great feedback from my buddy Terry & my wife. They are the two people that currently see the majority of my content & encourage me to keep at it. Its so nice to have these two in my corner & if any of this continues to grow & or somehow starts to really gain any speed, it will definitely have a lot to do with their encouragement. So the "Don't try so hard" mantra, doesn't really apply in the sense of don't try to make an effort at all, but it really has a lot to do with not overthinking a situations. I definitely found myself doing that this past week, but I'm glad I was able to make this video to remind myself to just go with the flow, don't overthink playtime with your kids, & just have fun. You don't have to be a creative genius to have a good time.
