Plan to Fail

I plan to fail.

This isn’t a self-deprecating statement. It’s more like a reframe of the creative process. Such a large part of creativity is giving myself room to play! Giving myself freedom to throw ideas out there and enjoy them for the sake of the adventure of creating, not the immediate outcome.

Planning to fail can be hard for me at times. I want to bring it up and talk about it because the results of planning to fail have allowed me to make my most meaningful art!

I told you earlier in the newsletter about my book and all the forms it took before it felt like it was right. If I had stopped when it didn’t fit well into an online workshop format, well, it would still be a ripe idea stuck lying in my pile of notes.

Using the book as an example, I created my idea of an online workshop. It didn’t work online as I had wanted (fail). I tried it as a pdf download requiring customers to print it (closer, but fail). Next I put it in a workbook format (very close, but fail). I continued and it then became a book.

My steps forward could be considered fails. Okay. So they were fails. MY FIRST FAIL TOOK ME TO MY NEXT FAIL THAT TOOK ME TO MY NEXT FAIL THAT TOOK ME TO MY NEXT FAIL…that took me to the answer, the book!

Get the picture?

And guys, the notes I started two years ago weren’t even close to complete sentences or being spellchecked or in any type of order. I just put my ideas onto paper willy nilly. If I would’ve started editing my thoughts as they came out on paper, I wouldn’t have gotten far. It would have stifled my creative energy.

When I give myself freedom to create as play and accept failure as an important part of the process, I can move forward.

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