I did a kiln firing over the weekend. I’ve been working on several things that I haven't had much success with so far. When I opened it up, all the large pieces that took the majority of my time and efforts turned out beautifully. Unfortunately, a few of the pendants I made, did not.
And guess what I focused and based the overall success on?
Yup. You guessed it. The few little pendants that didn't quite turn out became the focal point. And I found myself feeling disappointed.
Of course when relaying this disappointment with the pendants to Dan, he responds with "Wow Malinda, look at those bowls!! You nailed it!"
He completely ignored the few pendants. To him they were irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Granted he may not be as invested in the whole process and the time involved, but even when I pointed out my failures, he looked right past them and his focus went immediately to the success.
And when I said, again, that I wasn't happy with how some of the pendants turned out, he simply said, "Yeah...but I bet you learned some things for next time."
And immediately in my mind, something shifted. That sense of disappointment dissolved, and turned into simple acceptance. Yup, I suck at pendants right now…but he’s right, I do think I know what to do different. And I will continue to work at it. Plus, I really did nail those bowls. Lol
I’m pretty sure I don’t need to explain how this relates to Kung fu. But in that moment it suddenly clicked why it’s so important to measure success by how far you’ve come, rather than where you eventually want to be. And why we shouldn't let a few sucky things outweigh all the good.
And so I will end my blog with both pictures of my awesome bowls, and my “someday will be awesome” pendants.
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