The Art of Failure

“Make a million mistakes, but don’t make the same mistake twice.”

For many of us, mistakes and failures are often seen as stumbling blocks that hinder our path to success. However, it is through these very setbacks that we can expose ourselves to tremendous growth.

When pursuing our own individual endeavors - no matter personal or professional, and no matter the vocation - it is crucial to reframe our perspective on failure. Instead of viewing it as a defeat, we should instead perceive failure as an opportunity for learning. Each misstep or mistake provides valuable insights and feedback that can guide us towards improvement in the future. Failure forces us to take a step back, reevaluate our approach, and consider alternative perspectives. It challenges our existing views, opening doors to fresh ideas. 

But we will only grow if we set aside our existing fears.

Many of us are either conditioned to or inherently believe that failure equates to being wrong, and being wrong equates to a negative thing personally, socially, or both. This is so incredibly unfortunate, because it discourages creativity, innovation, new experiences, and - above all - expression.

Our fear of failure often prevents us from taking risks and exploring new ideas. In other words, we get in our own way of our own growth.

But it doesn’t have to be like this.

In my own life, I have always wrestled with the fear of making mistakes. There have been several times in which this fear has held me back from stronger impressions, deeper connections, and greater opportunities.

Thankfully I’ve reflected and made this realization.

This year, one of my core goals is practicing to let go of my fears - total and complete abandonment! It’s a difficult barrier to overcome. The best way I can describe it is like trying to change your dominant hand. Retraining the way I think takes active work and it’s uncomfortable at times. But the thought of the potential I can reach by casting aside my fear of failure far outweighs the ingrained “comfort” that the very same fear maliciously offers.

And I must say: the more I retrain myself in this way, the more authentic my creative work becomes. So, too, the more enthusiasm I have to create and the quicker I’m able to create.

It’s a positive feedback loop in which I can only succeed.

Also, in examining a wide variety of creative mediums - paintings, music, film, books, video games, and more - I’ve come to realize that many of the finished works - what we may hold as masterpieces in their respective craft - never reached a true point of what I refer to as “Golden Perfection,” which is the idea that the Artist knows exactly when their work has reached perfection and can no longer be improved upon.

Don’t take what I’m about to say as gospel, but… the idea of “Golden Perfection” couldn’t be farther from the truth. Whenever anything is created, whether a song or an episode of your favorite show or that house over there - at some point, that created thing has to be abandoned so the Artist can move on to their next work: the next song, the next episode of your favorite show, or the next house over there.

It’s easy to get caught up in the details of our processes. We fixate on the mistakes still apparent (maybe only to our eyes alone), all the while forgetting to see the strides we’ve made in the bigger picture.

We would all do well to abandon our fears, to forget the Golden Perfection.

The fear only serves to hold us back.

So I say to you - yes you! - to be kind to yourself when a mistake is made. Do not fear it; learn from it. After all, failure is a catalyst for learning, and learning is the foundation for growth.

We should all be so kind as to allow ourselves the permission - the freedom - to fail.