I've discovered a little secret to doing great work:

TRY to do bad work.

When I first started writing, I would often obsess about each specific scene. I wanted to make sure everything was perfect. I wanted to make sure the story or the play I was working on was really great, that it was strong and interesting and would change the landscape of American theater... or at least that it would impress my playwriting 101 class.

When I was in my first lead role, I was really nervous about getting it right and perfect because it was my first real chance to prove myself in a big part. I worked really hard but was nervous to make any big or crazy choice for fear the director would be mad or my cast mates would think the choice strange.

Here's the thing: the pursuit of perfection was helpful in that it pushed me to work very hard, which is good. However, it also often paralyzed me from being able to take greater risks, to really try new things, and at times, to even get any real work done. Instead of being able to just write things down to write them down, I found myself stuck, or deleting every new page I wrote because it was "bad" or not good enough. Instead of making bold character choices, I found myself playing it safe in my role. Instead of feeling like an equal, I felt like I was playing catch up to the perfection of my scene partners.

The thing is, we (or at least I) often forget that the pieces of theater we most admire (generally) did not leap fully formed from an artist's imagination. It took many drafts, lots of work, taking risks and trying things and failing and then trying it again, to get it all right. It took a lot of "bad" drafts, a lot of "not quite right" versions, before it got to the final amazing productions we get to see.

One of the biggest creative gifts I gave myself was allowing myself to screw things up. To do it wrong, to perform badly. In other words;

Once you remove the pressure of perfection, then you can start to play.

And once you are playing, that's when the real creative fun and heavy lifting can happen.

I had horrible writer's block for the second act of a very personal play - until I said "f*** it" and sat down to write the craziest, "bad" version of the act. It ended up being exactly where the play needed to go.

While performing improv a few years ago, I felt stuck and like I was recycling characters and ideas - until I said "I'm going to just take a huge risk and suck tonight" and ended up having one of my best shows in a long time with new material and ideas and happy accidents.

In two weeks, I'm going to embark on a big improv tour and film making experience, driving from Los Angeles to Alaska. The inspiration was from a "dumb idea" and a "joke" about going to Alaska to get donuts to eat. A few conversations later, it evolved into a serious and exciting creative project which we were able to fully fund with grants and a crowd-funding campaign.

So as you're setting out on your next creative endeavor, give yourself the permission to really suck. Try making that first draft the worst possible. You'll be surprised what you discover in the freedom to be bad.

Freedom to be bad - AND a BADASS.