Mistakes and Creativity- Use both!

Mistakes and Creativity- There is skill involved in doing both of these.

I want to establish an understanding early on with all of you that is very important to me and hopefully will improve your experience on this blog. I will refer back to this post when we talk about making, cooking, and doing (so everything?).

Put simply:

Mistakes and creativity can be one in the same if you let yourself look at all situations as opportunities.

Stay with me through this next part: We can make mistakes, quit, and never even get close to fulfilling our intentions. We can make mistakes, continue a process with a chip on our shoulder because we ‘messed up’ and fail to experience pride in what we have accomplished. We can make a mistake, pretend it didn’t happen, internalize those negative feelings, and miss out on an opportunity for enjoyment and growth.

We can just make mistakes, or we can make mistakes and then decide to creatively handle a situation gone awry.

Making the decision to respond creatively instead of negatively looks very different and opens the door for a positive experience, personal growth, and probably some good laughs. I’ll share some recent examples.

Starting with this list of pinterest fails, because if you haven’t seen this yet you are missing OUT. There are plenty of confidence boosters here, and if these people pushed through, you can too!

I really wanted to try knitting mittens on 4 of the small knitting needles. I found a pattern quick online, definitely didn’t take the time to read the specifics on yarn or need size, and ended up with a mitten cuff I could barely get three fingers in. I spent hours learning how to cast on to four needles and figuring out how to hold the mess of string I was working with before I even realized the size issue.

I almost pulled the whole thing apart in anger to start over when I realized there are little creatures on this earth with smaller hands than I…

Called toddlers. (:

And we have plenty of parents friends that would adore a tiny set of mittens for their teensy little tots. Maybe I don’t get to wear these mittens, but I do get to learn how and I get to make a friend happy by sharing a special gift.

My mother-in-law (whom I call momil because it is easier and adorable like her) makes these giant cookies for special occasions. We are talking cake sized to be shared in groups of 10 or more. I was asked recently to frost the design of a white doctorate coat on to the cookie for my sister in law who will be a chiropractor soon! I had never before used frosting as an art medium, and it went on less than perfect. I had to rearrange some lines with a butter knife, casually smear some mistakes away, and ended up with a fairly broad shouldered looking doc. We would be celebrating with a bunch of families we had just met and I wished I had done a better job, but guess what? The cookie was a hit and the chiropractors appreciated the thought. My design did not affect the purpose of the cookie, and doing the best I could was very special to my family.

I was having a glass of wine the other night and I poured far too much into my glass. Instead of ‘wining’ about it, I happily drank all of that extra delicious, wonderful wine.

That last one is a stretch, but who knows some of you could find yourself feeling bad about such a thing! Because as humans, we are so so so judgmental of ourselves. That self-depreciation we put on ourselves bleeds into how we are perceiving others to be thinking of us. I will be the first to say that my brain assumes by default that others will be disappointed in what I make or do. And that is really sad. The worst part is, we all can step back and say ‘yes, my thoughts are cruel but that is not reality’ however we will still look for judgement where there is none.

Please try not to let these thoughts stick around for very long. Especially when most times we are making, doing, or cooking things for other people as an act of service. Your acts of service towards others and frankly for yourself should not ever be judged for quality.

You are kind and capable, and your work is worth appreciating no matter how small.

Mistakes happen even when we are cooking something we have made one hundred times because distractions, stress, and sleep deprivation are real things, people! Give yourself the opportunity to find a creative solution to an endeavor that is not going exactly as planned. At the very least, your effort deserves this. Don’t call something a mistake until you stop trying to find a solution.

With all of this said, I want to encourage you to take some roads less traveled on your projects. Add a spice the recipe didn’t call for. When you find a new critter sharing your garden, observe for a day  or two and see if it is harming your plants or not before removing it. Try using google less and your common sense more, because I am very sure your creative mind can come up with something better. And don’t say that you are not creative, because you are. You are uniquely creative. And I can’t wait to see and hear about your problem solving skills as we turn our mistakes into opportunities.