Find the Opportunity in Mistakes

By Wendy Pitman Jones

I’ve heard it said that there are no do-overs in life. In some cases, that’s true. But in most cases, it’s so not.

Accept That Mistakes Are Part of the Process

Most of us don’t get things right the first time, yet if we fall short, we can experience a crisis in confidence. What if we go into things — both in art and in the rest of our lives — knowing that we’ll probably make a mistake, pivot, and eventually get it right? If that process is our expectation, we’d have so much more energy for creating.

One of the biggest things I’ve learned being a longtime card maker, and now, a painter, is how to fix mistakes. I painted this piece some time ago. And while I liked parts of it, I hated the yellow fish at the bottom and the goldfish at the top.

Put Criticism on Mute

I almost threw it out, but then I asked the perfectionist part of me to please go sit quietly in a corner so I could see the piece differently. With the criticism on mute, I was free to reimagine the piece. There was no risk here — the worst that could happen is that the piece would look even worse when I was done…