Mistakes and the Creativity Perspective

A Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity discussion topic

Copyright 2005 by K. Ferlic,   All Rights Reserved

 
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Creation is to bring into existence something not previously experienced or significantly different. Creativity, and our ability to create, by their very definitions always take us into something that has not existed before. As such we must enter the unknown. In exploring the unknown, it may take some time to gain the minimum set of requisite experience to fully understand what we need to do to create what we desire. If we do not have the experience to properly characterize the flow of energy giving rise to what we desire to create, we will be unable to understand what we need to do until we get that experience.

To explore the unknown means that you will have to make what some people call “mistakes.” That is, there will be “false starts” or attempts that fail at producing our desires results. When our creation does not grow the way we think it should for whatever reason does not necessarily mean we are wrong. It may mean we did not have that minimum set of experience to know exactly what to do. It may take several attempts to get the minimum set of experience.

However we cannot make a mistake when we work with the unknown. It is impossible to make a mistake with the unknown. There are only experiences to be had. There is only exploration of how things work. Each “mistake,” “false start” or “failure” is only a filtering process to get at what one needs to create what they desire. It is only our judgment to think that what we learn in our mistakes, false starts and failures is not useful. Each of them give us additional information as to who the universe and others do or do not work. Mistakes only occur relative to something known and is only a judgment made by us or another who thinks they know.

A mistake can only be made in comparison to something. We can only make a mistake if we have some performance measure for comparison. If we don’t know because it is unknown, we cannot make a mistake. If what we do fails to produce our desired results we have not make a mistake. We are only exploring and having an experience.

A mistake is an error, or a fault in one’s action, perception or understanding. But to have a mistake, it needs to be a fault against something. The question then is what is our actions a fault against? There must be something that is being used for comparison. But if we are really dealing with creativity and a new creations to what can we compare until we have fully explored the creation?

Only at the end of the exploration can we go back and make comparison. If we try and compare in the middle of the exploration we are no longer exploring all the facets of the unknown. We have left exploration and entered judgment for we are judging what occurs and we have shut off the perception of the experience that could be had. Besides, how do we know what we have completed the exploration to begin to make valid comparisons?

Similarly, a fault is an is something that impairs or does not allow for excellence. But excellence is only seen as a judgment of attribute or aspect being of the very best quality. Now here is where things get interesting in trying to judge a creation on quality.

A quality is something that makes something what it is. It is the distinguishing element or characteristic of something. A quality is of the basic or essential nature of something,. If you are dealing with the unknown we cannot fully know what the qualities or the basic and essential nature of what you are exploring are until we are done exploring. So when we talk about making a mistake or finding fault, we need to ask, to what quality are we being judged or judging?

If we are dealing with the unknown, we can have no valid judgment for we have not yet uncovered the quality or qualities against which to judge. Any quality that we would choose in an extrapolation is a projection from past and past creations. To make such a judge we are expecting the new creation to be like the past. But that is not necessarily the case. The new create will not necessarily have the same qualities as were present in the past. That is what it means to have a new creation. Something not seen before, significantly different and an original, not a copy of the past.

We may be correct in recognizing that the new creation does have certain qualities much like something we have known, but unless we remain open, we will miss the other new qualities that are present. Also we will fail to see if that the new quality that we thought was like the past is actually something new and different and only initially looked the same.

A simple example to consider on this topic of quality is to observe the sunrise or sunset. Every sunrise and sunset is different, yet each has qualities similar to the one before it. If we assume that each is the same and don’t look for the differences, we miss some very exquisite sunrises or sunsets. If however, we look at each as unique and look to see how each is unique, we can watch each and every day and never be bored. Each day we will see how different each and every sunrise or sunset truly is unique. We may even come to find the only common element between sunrises is that the sun does rise, and the only common element of the sunsets is that the sun sets. Other than that, everything else is unique to the date, time and place of observation.

There is an anecdote that is applicable to what we face when we plant our seed to see if it grows into our desired creation. There is product on the market today called WD-40. Most of us use the product as a lubricant or to free mechanically frozen or rusted parts. From the author’s understanding, it was designed to displace water back in the1950's for satellites. When satellites when into orbit, water vapor in the atmosphere of the satellite could condense onto moveable parts and freeze. So there was the needs for something to displace water on the parts so the water would no adhere to the surfaces and freeze. Hence the need for a water displacing substance for the surface of the parts. The WD-40 stands for “Water Displacement Formula #40.” That implies there were thirty-nine other attempts at creating a water displacement formula. That does not mean the other thirty-nine attempts were wrong. Rather, it took the experience of those other thirty-nine attempts to understand what needed to create something to displace water.

So to with many of our creation. It may take several paths and iterations before we find what gives us our desired creation. The issue is to not see what we do that does not work as mistakes but learning experiences. We need to go back and look at the lessons learned in any experience we have to know what did, and didn’t work, to create what we desired. It is only when we get that minimum set of requisite experience we will known what to do. Until then we must rely on our intuitive guidance.

On this point, there are no mistakes that can be made. There are only learning experiences to see what does and doesn’t work. Mistakes can only be made against something that is known. In a truly creative endeavor like creating a safe space for the creative spirit for another to unfold we are facing the unknown. We cannot make a mistake. We have no way of knowing exactly what is right. We may have some generic ideas but we cannot know for sure. All we will find is some ways are more effective and efficient than others.

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