New & Improved VS Tried & True

When we create great work, we (should) nurture a passion for our craft, our audience, and our tools.

But that doesn’t mean we should keep working on all of these things:

Our craft will continue to evolve, trends will come and go. We get to decide whether we want to chase the trends, or focus on mastering timeless disciplines that matter most.

Our audience will continue to evolve, because people are messy and the world continues to change. We get to decide whether we want to chase new audiences all the time – staying shallow for many – or to recommit ourselves daily to the exact same people – going deep for our chosen few.

Our tool belt options will continue to change, there always seems to be a new-and-improved version of something coming around the corner. We get to decide whether we want to keep re-learning how to do basically the same thing with new toys, or master the ones we have to keep our focus on what we do with them rather than merely how to use them.

New-and-improved isn’t always a feature. Sometimes, tried-and-true is exactly what will enable us to do our best work.