So, I've just had a few things that I've made that I had just created as stepping stones - things to show to someone else for them to make "something better." Because I didn't think what I had made (or could make) would be as good as what I wanted for my stream. That my own skill wasn't good enough.
But due to various chains of events - and this urge to keep fiddling with my stuff that I've somehow cultivated this winter - I decided to keep working on those things. Flesh them out, making them nicer. Originally with the idea of "well, this will serve as a better example later" but it moved into actually just cleaning up what I had made and using it.
Those graphics I posted about two weeks ago? The first one I finished up and am using two different versions of for my Starting Soon and Stream Over scenes. The little Sneks holding signs? Headers for my About Me section on Twitch now.
And a bit more recently, I had A Silly Idea that I wanted to use for a Scene Transition. Did some fiddling using the tools that I had available to me and got... close? to what I wanted. But as a Scene Transition it just felt off, so I pulled it back out and felt a bit like I wasted my time on it. Decided on a whim a couple hours later that I could at least show it off to the chat as a "hey, here's a goofy thing I made that didn't work out" - a conversation piece at best.
When I set it up and sized it so it was just a Media Source and set into place for showing as that rather than a Scene Transition... I dunno, something clicked. Set it to a hotkey, got a LUA to make it hide itself once it was done so it works with a single key press, and now I have a Silly Button I can use. It still doesn't look as smooth as I'd like it to be... but I was honestly getting a laugh out of it once I had it set up and I'm hopeful folks coming to my stream will enjoy it too.
And, honestly, it just shows that sometimes it's okay to take a crack at something you might not think you have the chops for. Not only will it help you improve and eventually get those chops, but you might surprise yourself and make something that works for what you were wanting! And even if it doesn't, there's always a chance you can repurpose it for something else or just have it as a point of reference for future efforts - either your own or if you bring on help with it.
So draw that doodle, write that short story, take a crack at that bit of graphic design or video. No effort is truly wasted. It's all nourishment to help you grow and learn. And it's been things like what happened above that help remind me of that.