Seems that everywhere you look today, the only thing people are talking about is results. Lose 10 pounds (or 100). Earn $3,000 a week. Decorate your home like a professional (a professional what I wonder?).
Results are important, yes. No one wants to spend all week knitting and at the end, have nothing to show for it. No, what the knitter wants is a nice cozy scarf or afghan or pink pig stuffed animal at the end of all that work.
That being said, creative projects often don’t turn out as planned. You never see other people’s failures. Maybe you got the recipe and design from Pinterest, but your cupcakes look nothing like the photos. Well, you have no idea how many times the creator made that exact same cupcake design before it came out looking like that. Or maybe they’re a professional cake decorator. Or maybe they’ve just been decorating cakes since Hector was a pup. Whatever.
Any type of creative endeavor is prone to the odd fuckup. Take today. I moved into this apartment 2 weeks ago and it is still a disaster zone. But, since I now have more than 15” of counter space in the kitchen, I couldn’t resist the urge to bake bread. Baking is one of my favorite hobbies, and who doesn’t like having fresh, delicious bread on hand all the time?
So, to the kitchen I go. I found the mixing bowl, measuring cups and spoons pretty easily. Flour and yeast, butter, no problem. I make a multi-grain bread, and the recipe varies based on what I have on hand. Without too much trouble I found the whole wheat flour, oatmeal, honey, flaxseed meal, and cornmeal. What else? Oh yes, I must grease the bowl for the bread to rise in. And I’ll need to grease the pans…for that matter, I’ll need to find the bread pans.
That’s when I discovered that my shortening was violently rancid. I took the lid off and I shit you not, I could almost see the stench coming off that stuff. Luckily, I have plenty of butter, which in my opinion doesn’t work as well, but will work.
In spite of all that, my bread will turn out just fine. The thing is, I’m lucky enough to enjoy the entire process even when shit happens, as it did, profusely, this morning. I honestly enjoy everything about baking bread, from setting out the ingredients, to measuring, kneading (my favorite part!), shaping loaves, watching the dough rise and take shape, the scent while the bread is in the oven… and of course I enjoy the result – not too many things are better than eating that first warm slice slathered with butter…
The more you create, the more potential there is to fall prey to fuckups. For example, I once spent HOURS taking photos before I realized that my autofocus wasn’t working correctly. Years ago, on my first trip to Whitehorse, Yukon, I took hundreds of photos and my SD card died. And don’t even get me started on how many crochet projects have been unraveled and reworked.
Today has definitely reinforced the idea that the most important part of life as a creative person is to enjoy the process. Sure, my macrame projects are all as yet lumpy messes. Since I’ve only completed 3 in my life, I think I can cut myself a break. At least I’m making stuff by tying cord into knots. There are less productive ways to spend my time. More importantly, there are less enjoyable ways to spend my time.
It has taken me a lot of time to learn how to enjoy the process just as much as the result. It’s not always easy, especially when the thing I am making isn’t turning out the way I think it should. Fortunately, enjoying the process is a skill that can be learned. Like baking, crochet, photography, macrame, horseback riding, you name it. As creative people, we can teach ourselves to slow down and enjoy making whatever it is that we are making.
As a bonus, when you enjoy the process, you enjoy the result even more. As great as it is to hold the product of your work in your hands, it’s more satisfying when you enjoyed the making of it. Even if those Pinterest-sourced cupcakes that were supposed to look like ponies but turned out with more visual similarities to the Loch Ness Monster…
