The Done Manifesto for the Digital Scrapper—Part 10
by Jen White
Welcome to Part 10 of a series entitled The Done Manifesto for Digital Scrappers. If you are just now joining, I’d encourage you to start from the beginning.
Sometimes a girl has time to sit and play and be ultra crafty. Then there are times when a girl just has to get things DONE. The Done Manifesto for Digital Scrappers is for those times.
If you are interested in just getting it DONE, this series is for you.
We’ve been talking about the Done Manifesto by Bre Pettis. It’s been quoted as being “a set of working rules based on a sense of urgency.” We are working together as a team and a community to see how this “sense of urgency” could be applied to our craft of digital scrapbooking by taking a look at one “Done rule” per week and relating it to our world. This week we are focusing on Mr. Pettis’ Rule #10.
Done Manifesto #10: Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
Girl, don’t get down on yourself. Mistakes are all part of the creative process. Read on.
The Done Manifesto for Digital Scrappers Rule #10.
Mistakes count as done.
I recently read an article by the Huffington Post entitled, 18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently. Interestingly enough, one of the things was: We fail . . . a lot. They referred to it as “failing up.”
It’s the idea of resilience. You try new things because you’re curious. If (and when) you fail, you pick yourself up and dust yourself off. You don’t take the failure personally.
And now you have two choices:
- Have another go at it.
Let’s say you tried the latest and greatest video tutorial at Digital Scrapper, but your result doesn’t look anything like the one in the video. Don’t get down on yourself—kudos for giving it a try! Now pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and give it another go. - Call it done.
This time, instead of giving it another try, put a bow on it, and call it done. Chalk it up as a learning experience. It’s not what you thought you’d end up with, but some of the best things in life were derived from a mistake.
What’s your take on Rule #10?
Rule #1 | Rule #2 | Rule #3 | Rule #4 | Rule #5 | Rule #6 | Rule #7 | Rule #8 | Rule #9 | Rule #10
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Author: Jen White | jen@digitalscrapper.com
All comments are moderated.
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Jen, you are so right. I have to try and try again on many tutorials! Thanks!
Jenrou
Sometimes the only way I ever get a tutorial to look good is to try it several times until I get it right.
When I joined Digital Scrappers and began using Photo Shop Elements I did not know anything about the program. By taking your great classes and doing lessons and tutorials several times I have learned a lot about the program.
If I had only tried once to do a lesson I would have given up on the program years ago. Guess I would apply the “Have another go at it” attitude.
You really hit the nail on the head with rule number 10. It is liberating to know that we don’t always have to be perfect. I love that this is a characteristic of creative people. It is so refreshing to read your commentary each week – thank you.
I write, I paint, I create digital scrapbook pages, and I engage in lots of other creative endeavors. The results range from dreadful to excellent. Often I learn something useful from the failures, and if I weren’t willing to risk failure, I wouldn’t have all my successes. It is harder on the ego to make a mess in public (I did a really bad painting in a class a couple of weeks ago), but I learned something from the experience (haste can make waste)and produced a much better painting the following week. The successes more than compensate for the failures. One other thing – the failure rate tends to drop as you become more experienced – i.e. you need to tolerate a lot of failure when you are learning.
Indeed. Failure = learning, and on oh-so-many video tutorials, my results are nothing to brag about and I don’t post them, but the point was, I learned a lot. And, if it’s a particular one that I want to master every detail, then yes, I’ll do it again. Differently, with different “props,” so not re-doing. But this is ONE of the Done Manifesto items I can say yes, I live this!
I like the idea of putting a bow on it and calling it done. I don’t believe I have ever done that, but sounds like fun!!! Often times I do a tutorial over because I like it so much and want to try it in several different ways. Some of the several are not as good as others, but I usually keep trying until I get it the way it was intended. I like your done idea . . . gotta give it a try.