Community beats Ego

At the start of this guide, I talked about motivation not being consistent, and people naturally struggling with it. People are social beings. It’s hard for us to do things on our own, for ourselves, in isolation.

Instead, many articles on productivity will advice you to announce your goals or projects, so other people hold you accountable. They will advice you to seek validation and support outside of your own head.

This is partially useful, and partially a big trap.

Yes, other people can help you to keep going. They can give objective feedback, when you see everything through a colored subjective lens. (If you think you’re fat, you’re going to look in the mirror and find every reason to confirm you’re fat. Others might simply look at you and think you’re not fat.)

Yes, people are motivated and happier when they have strong social relationships. People do really well on responsibility. If they’re afraid to let someone else down, they will not complain and do the work.

At the same time … most other people don’t give a shit.

Harsh words, I know. But you’re not the center of the universe. If you announce your goals, others will likely say “sure, great,” and continue with their lives. Don’t expect them to carry you. Don’t expect them to be as involved with your project as you are. Most of the time, nobody is even waiting on that project you’re making, nobody even cares if you are healthy or not.

That’s simply the reality.

And seeking validation then, trying to build your motivation on the shoulders of others, will merely lead to more disappointment and sadness.

Clearly, there’s a balance here. It took me a long time to find that balance. And it might be different for everyone, it might depend on what productivity means to you.

So I’ll just share my own journey and what I’ve learned.

You don’t have to believe in yourself

It has become a sort of motto for artists worldwide: “my greatest enemy is crippling self-doubt”

Many people recognize themselves in that statement. You constantly feel the imposter syndrome. You look at your own work, compare it to the finished product of professionals, and think you’re incompotent and shouldn’t even try anymore.

This does not go away. No moving speech, no self-help book, no amount of succes will make this go away. Anyone with ambition will always strive for more and look to bigger futures. Don’t expect that everything will fall into place once you’ve removed the self-doubt, once you “believe in yourself”.

Instead, you just have to ignore this. I don’t know who said it, but I once read: “You don’t have to believe in yourself. You just need to put in the work.”

Take belief out of the equation. Don’t expect you to believe in yourself. Don’t expect a community to magically form around you and believe in you. Belief is not important.

Just put in the work.

Put in the work, and the community will come. Once you’ve done some things, others will find it and be impressed. They will see what you cannot see. They will show you how far you’ve come, how productive you’ve been.

Again, you almost can not see this yourself. You need outsiders to reveal or confirm this for you.

But that can only happen if you’ve done the thing you wanted to do for a long enough time.

Publish fast, publish early

So yes, community is crucial. They give feedback. They support you when you can’t support yourself. They see things you cannot see anymore.

But again, the community cannot come if you don’t put stuff out there. Let others know your goals. Let others know what you’re trying to do. But also actually do it. Also share the final product, something that comes close to the goal, as early as possible.

This is a common mistake with game developers. They work on their game in isolation, almost in secret, for years. And then they either lose motivation and quit, or they release it thinking it’s ready … and it’s not ready at all.

If developers share their progress, it’s usually in vague terms. They show some progress. They state a few development plans for the next month. This is not enough.

Build something. As soon as it somewhat works, start sharing it with people, start talking about it. Publish fast and early.

I give a lot of examples that show productivity through projects and creative products. But the same is true for other goals, like improving your health, or gaining other (soft) skills.

There’s no need to work on that in secret.

Fail big, fail publicly

This is related to the first point. Naturally, people are cautious when sharing, cautious when making statements.

While I don’t advocate pretending you’re amazing, or lying to yourself and others, it is recommended to “fail big”.

Why? The bigger the fail, the more you learn. But also, the bigger the risk, the more incentive you have to not screw it up or abandon the goal.

It’s easy to give up a creative project if all you’ve invested is time. It’s less easy if you’ve invested a large sum of money. Or you’ve clearly stated a deadline, on which your project is released, for a year now. Or you’ve entered contracts with publishers, other parties, whatever.

Again, the reason community beats ago, is because humans work well with responsibility. The more responsibility you put on your shoulders, the more you will live up to the task. Quitting or falling back into bad habits isn’t even an option anymore. Not shipping that product isn’t even an option anymore.

This is one I still struggle with. I am still cautious when creating new projects. I keep them small. I don’t build expectations, I invest nothing, I isolate myself to put in more hours of work. All good ideas … but they also make it hard to actually reach my goals, instead of giving up halfway or building something that was “easier” to make.

Don’t expect or require community. In the end, it’s a battle between you and the task you want to accomplish. The primary action and discipline will have to come from you. But put in the work, share all you do and think, and accept any community that comes your way.

This is general life advice, actually. Invite responsibility into your life. Enter projects or agreements which are a bit out of your comfort zone. Enter relationships, even when unsure if you can maintain them.

More often than not, people will rise to the occasion.

And that’s why community beats ego.