Inviting Mistakes

Inviting mistakes. 

For most of us mistakes are the kind of thing to be avoided. Mistakes are things done wrong, so why would they even be encouraged? Why would anyone invite mistakes?

Eric Maisel in his book, the Creativity Book, writes, "One of the hallmarks of an everyday creative person is that she does the kind of work that invites mistakes."

Although, mistakes are things done wrong, their value cannot be dismissed. Thomas Edison in his attempts to create the lightbulb made at least 10,000 mistakes. His thinking, though, was that he came up with 10,000 ways not to make a lightbulb. 

The other night I was trying a new recipe for quiche, and did not read the recipe carefully. I over cooked the pie crust which resulted in the edges folding over into the crust. Although, the final presentation could have looked better, the quiche itself was actually delicious. My mistake resulted in me committing to read a recipe through completely the next time before getting started. 

To me it looks like inviting mistakes has at least a two-fold benefit. First it means you are allowing yourself to take risks and try something new. Secondly, it gives yourself practice at not taking every mistake so personally. We ALL make mistakes, and none of us are immune. 

As Maisel states, creativity invites mistakes, and if we choose to be creative then mistakes will be part of the process. At its least mistakes will teach us how not to do something. For me the difficulty lies in not being so hard on myself when I do mess up, and being open to the possibilities for growth that my mistakes may bring.