Do Foolish Things!

You Are Human

Issue #89

Thanks for reading my weekly inspirational newsletter. This issue is about inconsistency, imperfection, and being foolish. If you find the newsletter helpful, please share it with others.

There is a desire on the part of human beings to make their lives consistent, and we become disillusioned when we find that our heroes don't live up to our ideals. Life is not consistent despite how much we wish it were. Life is messy, disorganized, and inconsistent.

As creative leaders, we do not always live up to our ideals. We make mistakes, screw-up, and form bad habits. Art, at its core, is inconsistent and messy. Every picture we paint, every story we write, or song we compose is different in nature and form.

Learn to accept the inconsistencies in your life and in the lives of those you love. You are only human.

Humans are not perfect. We make foolish mistakes. We behave in ways that we know we shouldn't. We make choices that we later question. We take the wrong turn in the road and find ourselves at a dead end. We run out of gas and find ourselves stranded at the edge of the road. We trust someone when we should have been wary. Even the most rational of beings can make foolish decisions.

And creative leaders are not immune to this disease of foolishness. Read the biography of any writer, artist, musician, or business leader, and you will find story after story of mistakes.

Are you enthusiastic about your mistakes, or do you sweep them under the carpet so no one finds out? Do you celebrate your foolishness with a toast? Are you able to laugh at your foolish mistakes? Do you find humor in your imperfections? Do you learn from your mistakes, or are you doomed to repeat them again and again?

This statement by Stanley Kunitz sums up one of the key challenges that every creative leader faces. What we create in the physical world is never as good as what we imagine in our minds.

Most creative leaders are never satisfied with the end product because we see something different in our mind's eye. And we have to learn to accept that it is okay to be imperfect.

Perfection is unachievable. In fact, as humans, what makes us interesting is our flaws. And the same thing is true of our art. It is the mistakes that make our art unique.

If the work we created were perfect, then every piece of art would look the same. It is our flaws, weaknesses, and obsessions that make our art uniquely ours. Our imperfections help make the art perfect.

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Plant seeds of hope in the hearts of others!

Thanks for reading Creative Seeds of Hope. I will stop by again next Tuesday. Have a fantastic week.