6 Ways to Turn Your Work from Average to Extraordinary

Before we talk about turning average creative work to extraordinary, a little confession:

I have spent the majority of my creative life feeling unworthy.

Not jealous, strangely enough, just… less than. I think my parents worked jealousy out of me a long time ago, God bless them.

Instead, I have spent my worse moments wondering why my writing didn’t feel as cheeky as John Green’s, my pictures didn’t look as sharp as Minnow Park’s, my videos didn’t feel as cinematic as Casey Neistat’s.

• I had the number 1 post in the world on CNBC — still felt unworthy.
• I got access to speak to all 14,000 of our employees at my day job (one of maybe 5 people who gets that chance)— still felt unworthy
• I made thousands of dollars worth of book sales in one week with no publisher or marketing team — still felt unworthy.
• I watched my work spread to millions of people online — still felt unworthy.

These days, I’ve gotten a little bit better at this. I haven’t found a full solution, just a partial one, a mantra that keeps me going when the darkness swarms my dendrites:

Your extraordinary work won’t look *exactly*…