Making Rights from Wrongs
By Chris Dunmire, Professional Mistake Maker
Humoring me today is creativity coach Jill Allison Bryan's perspective on perfectionism and 'doing more things badly.' She writes in her new article, Two Wrongs Might Make A Right!:
"Many of us set the bar so high for ourselves, that rather than take a chance on sketching a less than perfect drawing, writing a less than perfect song, or hosting a less than perfect dinner party, we don’t even try."
Does this sound familiar? How many wonderful creative learning/processing/expressing (or just plain enjoyable) experiences have you denied yourself because you didn't want to ruin the canvas, make a bad dish, or stumble over your own thoughts?
I've seen more creative hesitation than headway heaved over making that first pencil mark on a page — as if erasers didn't exist or crumbling up a piece of used drawing paper was a terrible tragedy. Here's a shocking secret: Using another piece of watercolor paper isn't the end of the world. Perfectionism is a creativity killer.
Why do we set the bar so high? Sometimes it's learned behavior brought on by conditioning. One gifted bead artist confessed to me that her fear of 'ruining' a piece of paper stemmed in part from childhood parochial school teachers limiting the supply. With contrition she purged, "You only got ONE piece of paper, and you had better not screw it up!" Decades later she was still practicing pencil penance in anticipation of her artistic attempts missing the mark. No wonder there's so much creative inhibition in the world.
Need permission to make mistakes? You got it. Jill continues:
"I, Jill Allison Bryan, creative life coach and recovering perfectionist, give you permission to do something you’ve been avoiding — and to do it poorly. I hereby absolve you from any pressure to create a masterpiece. This is all about getting started. Say aloud to yourself, “I give myself permission to write a really stinky poem,” or “draw a really lame sketch” or whatever it is that’s been buzzing around in the back of your mind that you’d like to do but keep swatting down like a pesky fly."
I love the idea of writing a really stinky poem:
This poem stinks
It smells like minks.
I like better what Jill says next. "Have fun with this. You may choose to go for it and make something truly horrendous. A sweater with three arms…"
Yes! A sweater with three arms — that's right up my alley. I present Nit Wits #46: Don't sweater the small stuff. Add that to Jill's "Yoga don't." Really, have you ever done something so outrageously wrong that you learned without question never to do that again? Here's three of mine:
- Put plain water in my car's windshield wiper container in the middle of winter with below-freezing temperatures outside. (Freezes!)
- Generously poured an unfamiliar condiment all over my food without sampling it first. (Horseradish tastes like horses mixed with radishes.)
- Left the house without checking to see if the two shoes I was wearing on my feet matched. (Don't put yer shoes on in the dark.)
How many rights have you made from your wrongs? go aheed, make soMe misTakkes. How dull would life be if you didn't? •
© 2008 Chris Dunmire www.chrisdunmire.com All rights reserved. |
