Failure is just a lesson, not an end

By Steve Green -

 

    Have you ever seen a Bigfoot? There’s quite a few pictures out there but nothing to totally convince me it truly exists. Yet we still still point our cameras into the woods hoping to see a glimpse of him. The same can be said about perfection. You can get close, real close. But no one can seem to tie her down. You can look, occasionally touch, but never truly capture her.

 

    The artist knows he will never become perfect, not in this life. He can hunt her down but no matter how close he gets, he’ll never catch her. In the mind of the artist, she’s more real than Bigfoot. But the closer he gets the more she eludes him.

 

    What is it that keeps the artist chasing perfection knowing it’s impossible to catch her? Why after continually failing, the artist continues the chase? Seems like the more the artist fails, the more he must pursue. Failure, like Perfection is truly a peculiar beast. It’s one of many metrics by which we learn and grow. You discover a mistake, judge your work against a standard, adjust and repeat the process. Over time you become proficient, but never perfect. Because if you were perfect your work as an artist would be done.

 

    It's impossible to create and not experience some form of failure. And to be clear, experiencing “failure” doesn’t make you a “failure.” The artist intuitively knows this and is always observing and self-correcting. So why is failure so painful? Here’s what I believe.  

 

   The pain is a result of attaching consequences to the failure rather than reflecting on the learning experience. Think back to when you were in school. You hand in an assignment and the teacher hands back your paper with a grade. If you got an A, good for you. B, great job but you can do better. C, you are average, work harder. D or F, we need an intervention something is wrong.

 

We can all agree that the kids who got A’s hung out with the A kids because why would you let a C or D pull down your average. The B kids are trying to move up to the A group but if they associate with C’s they will spiral down. The C’s are just coasting by, nothing more or less. The D and F’s have taken their lack of interest as a badge of honor. They don’t want to fit into the system.

 

    I knew kids who got A’s and B’s not because they were any smarter, they just didn’t want their parents pulling them out of the sports or activities they enjoyed. I also knew kids who were failing. They gloried in their image as rebels. You could always spot them in the parking lot smoking before and after school. And as for the C group, they had the persona that if I do more, you’ll push me more but If I do just enough, I fly under the radar.

 

    Looking at all these groups holistically, A students, B students, C students and so on, were not so much motivated by the learning experience but the consequences of not measuring up. The consequence of losing their identity and not fitting into a group.

 

    What often happens within the creative process is we end up trying to fit in. If our work does not fit the right characteristics of some standard, trend or framework, somehow we believe we failed.

 

    Anticipating the consequences due to mistakes in one’s work is a common pain point. Creatives often forget that any failure they encounter is simply a lesson. You can get so caught up in the aesthetics of the work that you forget about the joy of creating it. All creatives see the flaws in their work. That’s what pulls them back to the drawing board to create again and improve. However worrying over flaws you think others may find is a sign motivation wasn’t about the creative process. Just hoping you’d fit in. Congratulations you are back in High school.


    To be clear, I’m not being cavalier about failure. The goal is to learn from failure so you can grow, not be put down or belittled because of it. It is totally possible to experience failure from a positive and healthy perspective. The idea is not to go out there and just fail, fail, fail and not care. The goal is to overcome the fear of failure. Fear shouldn’t be allowed to paralyze or limit you from great experiences. When you are able to embrace your creativity free of fear your potential becomes limitless.

 

Apostle Steve Green

 

Welcome to The Mind Your Newness Blog site. My name is Steve Green, an Apostle and Artist. I write about the creative process to help others transform their lives. I love to share ideas and practices that I have learned to help others find their unique and authentic creative voice.

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