Budget in Time for More Failures

It is week twenty-one in our fifty week calligraphy challenge and we were tasked with writing the entire alphabet within a two inch square. One letter had to be prominent. I really enjoy working small, those tiny letters and pen tips make my day. I was on the phone all day so I had to let the prompt simmer until I had time to create. After dinner I got started, and took a bathroom break. In that break I wondered what a two inch square would look like on toilet paper, which obviously resulted in a piece. I enjoy when the prompts give us restrictions, that seems to engage my creativity in a totally new way.

I actually created about twelve squares with alphabets. The ones not shown here will end up in my scrap drawer. It was nice to give myself freedom to try and fail, improve the idea and try again. I write about learning all the time, so it was nice to experience myself doing failing then learning over and over and over again. I learned to budget in time for more failures. That might sound like a silly concept, and yet when we KNOW we can try with no consequences, then fail, then try again, there is a real sense of freedom. Somehow our minds and skills progress through that pattern to get to a solid end result.

When was the last time you set out to fail, try again, then fail some more? Strange huh? Working small this week reminded me that excellence doesn’t always come at once, it comes at last. If we force ourselves, pressure our creativity and thoughts to produce too soon, we can finish the job with a less exciting end result. It is when we give ourselves the space to flub it all up, try again, tweak and play, THAT is when our best work comes forward.