Did I make 4 matching coffee mugs? Weeeeeeeeeeell...technically no....but I did make 2 sets of 4 "un-matching" coffee mugs....as well as many other pieces!! Lol.
Even though I wasn't able to get anything matching, alot of different things resulted out of setting this goal.
I built my pottery shed and got my kiln set up.
I successfully calibrated and fired my kiln for the first time.
I learnt a bunch about clay bodies and glazes.
I learned how to glaze and layer.
I expanded to pinch pots and sculpting.
And I did make those mugs, matching or not.
And BAM!!! A realization just slapped me in the face.
The more I think about this, the more I see that perhaps these specific requirements that we set aren't necessarily our true goals. But instead, they are more often the means to reach our true goal. If I had written "get back into pottery" as a goal, what would that have meant? How would I have done that? How would I have measured that? How would I have known I had successfully reached my goal? It would have been so abstract a goal that I likely would have failed. So instead, I think I chose a specific task. Something on which to focus. A reason to get back on my wheel. A reason to dust off my equipment. A reason to learn and expand this skill. A reason to get back to doing something that I love to do.
Making these coffee mugs wasn't the real goal. It was the tool I needed to reach my real goal.
The real goal was re-igniting my passion for pottery. And it worked.
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