It's good to have ambitions. The thing is when those ambitions get in the way of actually enjoying anything that happens in the process and is not immediately perfect.
And let's face it, in the beginning, it almost certainly won't be.
There's a lot of struggle and sweat and tears.
Along this line of thinking, I loved the way Simone Giertz, (maker/robotics enthusiast) put it on her recent TED Talk which is right below.
We are in a creative bubble of people doing amazing, impactful things on a constant basis, so it's really easy to get performance anxiety. Or perhaps you (like me) have high standards for yourself.
But when you teach yourself things—and we are probably all trying to learn something right now—there is a high likelihood of failing and feeling stupid.
And it all goes to that performance anxiety.
When you remove that pressure from yourself then you can actually enjoy the process of being a beginner, and be enthusiast about creating and learning about something that interests you.
And while purpose is important, it could be a good idea to not make it the starting point. We can get so focused on making something useful, relevant or even profitable that there is just too much on the plate.
As creatives we are inventors. Identify problems around you, even small and silly ones and play with that for the sake of learning.
Go ahead and carry out experiments. Make nonsense.
Will you fail? Yes. Will you learn? Definitely yes.
And perhaps, in the process, you will discover something important to solve in the world.