Not My Proudest Creative Moments

If you want to make an omelette, you’ve got to break some eggs.

And I broke a few eggs this weekend. Come to think of it, I’ve broken a lot of eggs. As I look at my blog over the past year I realize I’ve had some great successes and some pretty awesome failures.

But that’s the thing about failures: without them, we never have successes.

We have to fall down to learn.

My Failed Newsletter

I count it a success that I finally finished sent out my first once-or-twice-a-month newsletter. Learning MailChimp for a non-designer like myself was akin to speaking a foreign language. After stumbling around and finding my way in the dark, I finally sent it out.

But I made a few mistakes…

I was so concerned with the design of it that I completely overlooked three major spelling errors.

Can you spot mistake number one?

Yes, perhaps I do need some ‘reviwers’. Dear dear.

(Aside: if you’d like to get a incredibly creative but sometimes typo filled newsletter, click here to subscribe. It only comes out once or twice a month and you can guffaw at my mistakes.)

My Failed Blog Posts

In my effort to pump out three posts a week for the last eight months, I’ve churned out a number of winners, as well as a number of losers.

For your reading pleasure, here are some of my worst blog post ideas as measured by my WordPress stats:

• Keep it Simple Einstein – I love the quote on this blog post, yet it never really took off. Perhaps it’s because there’s no text and I didn’t personalize what it meant to me?
• If We Believe – Interestingly enough, this is another very short post. I rather like it, but it fell flat.
• Dream Spinning Rumpelstiltskin Style – Granted, I didn’t write this post this year, but I remember writing it and just muscling through it even though I didn’t really form a connection to it. What was I thinking? (I wasn’t.)

Sure, these aren’t the best blog posts, but I don’t count them as complete mistakes or failures because I learned what to do and what not to do.

The Thing About Mistakes

Mistakes are beautiful.

I remember learning to ride a bike. My mom tells the story of looking out the window and seeing me get up on the bike, and then fall again. And getting back up, and falling again. She said she was in pain watching me as my knees became more bruised and bloody with each fall.

But now I can ride a bike.

Now I don’t have to think about how to ride the bike, I just do it.

For corny dramatic effect: play the music on this YouTube video while reading the rest of this post…

Thank You Mistakes

Thank you mistakes.

Thank you for your lessons learned.

Thank you for never giving up on letting us make mistakes, and continuing to make them.

Through all the bruises, the scrapes, the pain, the agonies, the victories and the defeats, you have taught us well.

We shall never forget and will always remember your many kindnesses towards us as creative people as we fall and get back up.

Mistakes: you have made us who we are, and we are most grateful!

[box options]Question: What are some mistakes that have made you a better creative?[/box]