Learning to Fail

I'm 32 years old and I just finally figured out that failing at something is not the end of the world. I don't know why it took me so long but the revelation is a bit intoxicating. For the first time in my life I'm allowing myself the freedom to try and fail. And then try and fail again. And again.

For the last year or so I've been trying to learn to draw. I desperately want to illustrate my own children's books. But the pattern went something like this. Try a drawing, find that it was not good, crumple it up, toss it away, and give up for the day. Not conducive to learning. Instead it just made me feel that I'd never learn. For some reason, these past two weeks, I have gotten it into my head that whatever I produce is a learning process. Bad drawings happen. And now I'm having a ton of fun drawing. There is no pressure to be good. No worry about messing up. I carry an eraser with me at all times now. And for the first time I'm producing drawings that I think are okay. Not great, not perfect but okay. I just had to give myself permission to fail. 

Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is courage that matters--Winston Churchill