I’ve talked about it a lot here, how people, myself included, will not start something because they are stumped somehow. They don’t know the style, the process, the tool, so they will just wait for that to happen before they get started. Here’s another idea… give it a try!

I saw a video years ago, so I forget the name of the person being interviewed for a proper credit (sorry), where a woman said that at the dinner table at night, her father, rather than ask “what did you do today?”, would ask “what did you fail at today?”. Not in a “how did you mess things up today?” way, but a “what did you try today?” way. If you didn’t fail at something, then you weren’t trying anything, or at least weren’t trying anything that is a bit more of a challenge for you.

When trying something new, or starting a big project, it won’t go smooth right away. To be honest, if it does, it isn’t challenging you and you may be getting less out of it than you think. If you don’t fail, you aren’t learning. If you don’t try something new, you aren’t growing.

“Trying is more than others are doing.”

Jose Andres (chef)

Artistic people didn’t get where they are on natural born talent, they tried things, failed A LOT, learned, and tried again. Over and over and over, and are still doing it today. What can it hurt? At very least you are going to learn how to do it differently next time. But you will never know that if you don’t try.

What did you fail at recently?