Creativity and Setbacks

“When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.”

How many times have you heard that one? Countless, I'm sure. It always seemed like one of those goody-two-shoes Pollyanna-style homilies that made me want to gag. I picture some terminally cheerful June Cleaver type in a flowered apron and perfect teeth clutching a pitcher of yellow liquid clinking with ice and adorned with lemon slices.

Thing is, I was thinking about the theme of this article, which is creativity, and remembering some examples of how creative thinking got me out of what could be described as a bad situation, and this old saw took on some new teeth, so to speak. What it's about isn't as banal as it sounds. What it's about is getting past the self-pity and looking at things in a different way.

Here's what I mean. I'm a furniture artist. That's one of the things I love doing. When I first started doing it, I would come up with these glorious ideas, sketches and concepts about what I was going to make and then I'd try to make it. Thing is, I was also learning about wood, learning about tools and learning about furniture. (This is what you call your true 'learning experience') So I'd have this idea about what I wanted to make and how I was going to make it, but I had no experience about whether it would actually work. So, often times, things just wouldn't. Work, I mean. Sometimes the plan I'd made for how to put something together really wouldn't be practical. Sometimes the materials just wouldn't do what I was trying to make them do. Sometimes the tools I had were not adequate and/or appropriate for the tasks. Sometimes I'd just plain screw up. There's nothing quite so deflating as holding two pieces of wood in your hand you just cut in half and realizing it had been the same piece you were supposed to be using somewhere else. And you don't have any more. All of those things happened to me at various times, and sometimes all at once.

As I write this, I'm looking at a little table I call the Happy Luck Table. It is almost entirely different from what I first designed and started making. This table would not exist if I hadn't screwed up a major bit of sawing on the legs fairly early on in the project.

(I once read a book written by a boat builder. He talked about having a Crying Chair. It was the chair he would go sit in right after something went horribly awry.)

So the thing about the Happy Luck Table is that when I first made that mistake, I was devastated. If I'd had a crying chair, I'd have gone there, planning on staying all day and all night. I'd just ruined about fifty bucks worth of wood, and I didn't have a lot of money in those days. I was ready to throw the towel in, just give up on the whole thing, I mean.....how could I continue now? I'd have to start all over again and throw that wood, on which I'd already spent many dollars and hours, into the fireplace. I just put it all down and walked away.

Later though, I came back to the shop. I picked up those mis-cut pieces and turned 'em around and around in my hands. I started thinking about ways I could use what I had, mistakes and all. The change came when I stopped looking at the pieces as mistakes and started looking at them as design elements. I began to visualize a table with different legs, and with the different legs came a different apron design, and with that came a different plan for the top, and before you know it I made a table with a whole new feel; more refined and graceful than I'd originally planned, or ever visualized. This design became the basis for a whole series of tables using the same elements. Elements of design I never would have found if I hadn't first made the mistake, next gotten over the self-pity and finally looked at what I had with an eye for what it could become rather than holding on to the bitter memory of what it wasn't.

This was a turning point for me. Never again would a 'mistake' be an error. Never again would an accident be a cause for despair. I actually began to welcome these events, because they inevitably led to new discoveries, to new techniques and to an expansion of my knowledge, abilities and self-confidence. Now I am seeing how I can apply this same principle in other aspects of my life. Will there come a time when any setback is seen as a cause for joy, because of the opportunity for growth?

And could that mean that there won't be any more 'setbacks'?

Hmmm. Want some lemonade?