kid<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDo you remember painting, drawing, glueing bits of paper together, and creating useful or not-so-useful things out of random objects, and then expecting nothing but praise?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I need only think of the many, many creations my daughter made in primary school. The look on her face as she would hand over the latest work of art, and the carefully curated looks on our faces as we would receive it. (And let’s not forget the many cries for help on parent forums, asking for tips on how to either store these creations or get rid of them without the creator being any the wiser!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When she was little, there was hardly a week when we didn’t paint or write or stick things together at home, too. I’d spread a plastic sheet over the table and we’d sit there, drawing, painting, glueing, just for the sheer pleasure of it. We’d see what would happen when we mixed this colour with that\u2014the end result more often than not a colour more akin to mud than anything else. Or when we stuck this to that, resulting in …something. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did we worry about mistakes? Of course not! Not when each mistake was an opportunity to go in a new direction. An opportunity to add just one more colour, to turn something upside down or back to front, or to start again with a new idea forged on the back of the old one (you get the idea).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When did you last create without thought for mistakes?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
And what about you? When was the last time you felt completely free to experiment without thought to what might go wrong? Or the last time you doodled during a phone call or zoom meeting, your pen moving without judgement from you or anyone else? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When did you last play around with a recipe, string a few words together to try to capture something you saw or heard? Or when did you last stand in front of the mirror and experiment with different combinations of clothes and colours? In these kind of moments, mistakes don’t feel like mistakes at all. Instead, we happily see where they might take us without fear of censure, from ourselves or anybody else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Navigating creative paths and the fear (and mistakes) that comes with it<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
But in order to experience those kinds of moments, we have to give ourselves permission to be and to do. Permission to move in whichever direction we feel like. We have to allow ourselves to take the paths that open up before us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when the stakes feel higher, exploration can suddenly feel risky. We freeze, caught between our desire to create and our fear of getting it wrong. Our uncertainty has us stalling, because what if what we make doesn’t stand up to the expectation of ourselves or those of others? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What if we’ve just wasted our time? What if we’ve shown, yet again, that we don’t know what we’re doing or really don’t have a creative bone in our body?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finding direction through creative mistakes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Here’s where we need to shift our perspective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every creative journey, no matter what it is\u2014a workplace challenge, a project, a drawing, some text, a musical performance, a brainstorming session, that doodle or whatever else you can think of\u2014involves uncertainty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no certainty<\/em>, no guarantee that you will get it right<\/em>. No guarantee you will choose the right<\/em> path. But this is the essence of creativity, that each step is one into unexplored territory, even if you are treading a path you have trodden before. <\/p>\n\n\n\nEmbracing the creative process and the mistakes that are part of it<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Mistakes are an essential part of the creative process, because it is rarely ever about getting it right the first time. Instead, it’s about curiosity, experimenting, exploring, and ultimately creating something of your own. And that process\u2014with all its messiness, uncertainty and, naturally, with its mistakes\u2014is exactly what makes your creative expression uniquely yours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A mistake isn’t a wrong turn, but rather an invitation to explore, to take that path that has just opened up in front of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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