The Degas Syndrome
The story goes that Degas once visited the home of a collector in Paris, saw a painting he had completed some years prior hanging on the wall, took it down and marched off with it, insisting that there were some things he needed to correct.
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, Self-portrait (Degas au porte-fusain), 1855
All of us have felt this at some time or other: “But I would make it so much better now.”
My advice?
Leave it.
It is the nature of the creative process and all of Creation, really, to continually evolve.
Your mind, your thoughts, your skills, your interests are all moving perpetually forward. So it can be embarrassing or even painful to look back on what you have created in the past.
It can make you wince.
The urge to remake it or fix it can be strong.
But it would be as absurd as the notion of trying to go back to your high school with all the knowledge, experience and confidence you have gained as an adult to “Do it right this time.”
Why repeat high school?
What would be the point?
Leave the past behind and use all that you gained from experience to play better at the NOW game.
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