you are not gonna get it “perfect” the first time. or the second. maybe not ever.
that’s literally the magic of creativity.
you’re making something that doesn’t yet exist. and so, it means sense that you’re inventing new ways to create and new types of art.
mistakes are proof you’re making something. you can’t edit a blank page. you can’t rework something that doesn’t exist. the only way to make the right thing is to make a bunch of “wrong” things first. and half the time, those “wrong” things end up being the most genius part.
i mean, we all know a happy accident when we see one. the eyeliner wing that somehow turns into a graphic masterpiece (hello, julia fox). the coffee spill on your sketch that gives it this unexpected texture that looks like you planned it.
in his journals, Keith Haring writes about certain shapes he’s trying to figure out. at one point he writes of buying a tube of red paint and using the entire tube to experiment. these shapes eventually became the iconic lines we recognise as Haring’s in an instant. what seems effortless is actually the result of tireless experimentation.
this week, i want you to move like a mad scientist in the lab. save the white gloves and measuring beakers, just glorious chaos until you find the thing that works.
Mantra:
mistakes can also be the solution.
Message:
perfection is boring. flaws are art. so stop thinking mistakes are the opposite of progress when they are the progress. the mess ups are where the interesting stuff happens. the parts you couldn’t have planned if you tried. and when you let yourself experiment freely, allowing mistakes to arise, that’s how you find your way.
Make It Real:
★ experiment: take something you want to figure out and use a whole tube of paint in effort. write a sentence in 10 different ways. give yourself space to invent your own ways.
★ mess it up on purpose: pick something you’re working on and ruin it. spill paint, write the sentence weird, film it at a “bad” angle. then see what happens. you might just like it even better this way.
This week’s mantra comes to us from the Cosmic Brilliance deck + guidebook. Get your own copies as a tool to connect with your own unique creative expression.
get your own here → and make something so good they’ll never know it was an accident.