What if you couldn’t get it wrong? [Creativity mindset hack]

This painting came out of wanting to use up old paint on my palette, and also feeling drawn to make by some new rules for a change. The rules were:

1. Mistakes don’t exist.

2. You can not get it wrong because there is no right or wrong on this page.

3. Get that paint DOWN however it happens, don’t stop to think, don’t stop to plan, it is what it is.

It was so freeing to make from that mindset, as sooo often I have a vision in mind when I start a painting, and while I like and enjoy attempting to bring the vision to reality, it can be an intense process because I want to get it ‘right’. (Virgo over here)

When it comes to making the brush stroke, I have to overcome the fear that I’ll put it in the wrong place, and have to trust that it’ll work - like chopping wood with an axe, precision comes from the faith in oneself to see the area of focus, let go, and make your mark.

But when it comes to free flowing, I can get really stuck! I can find it hard to pick a colour, decide what should come first and where to make my marks and where they should go next, because I’m scared

• it’ll just come out shit if I don’t consider these things first

• It’ll be a waste of time and materials

• I will feel bad about what I’ve made and bad about my abilities and I might as well put my paints away forever because I’m not a real creative.

It’s easier for me to have a plan, and think through the steps first. But it can also be really limiting. I’m sure I’m not alone in this.

I can find it hard to trust the part of myself that doesn’t need to think it through and have a vision, and that lack of trust can take away the spirit of my real creativity, can take away the playful qualities of making, the unknowing and the heart-expression, which also hurts when they’re regularly not allowed.

So yesterday, seeing as I have been wanting to use up paint on my palette and make from imagination and heart, I experimented with the ideas that ‘I cannot get it wrong’ and that ‘there are no mistakes because those rules of right and wrong do not apply here’.

When I sat down to play, I obviously came up against the limiting thoughts (you don’t know what you’re doing! You’re not good at this free flow shit! You should make a plan!) and kept going anyway, resisting the urge to stop and think too much, keeping on going to see what happened.

I reminded myself that sometimes what you initially think looks upsettingly shit can turn into something better later, and that here on this page, it’s actually fine if I make something that normally I’d think was shit! Those rules do not apply here! Remembering that, I felt so freed by my own inner critics and judges, and allowed myself to doodle my way through the limiting voices and it was so liberating. This approach really helped me to slip out of the armour/shackles of perfectionism and have fun with it.

It was funny that despite my agenda of NO AGENDA, I would find my brain making plans for the painting, and part of my inner work though the piece was to notice where that directing voice was coming from... was it ‘get this shit together and make it BEAUTIFUL’ or was it ‘ooh I could put some pretty dots on there... and OMG! there’s red on this palette, what about plopping it THERE!!’ and allowing myself to be directed by the voice that felt explorative, releasing the controlled attempts to try and have the painting make sense and embody any kind of traditional artistic quality. Sensing into those inner voices was interesting.

I’m not making myself wrong for my normal mode of having a plan, working methodically and with a lot of care. If anything, part of my creative journey I feel is actually about owning the part of myself that works in a detailed oriented, vision led way, as opposed to trying to change it... but I felt like it was time to balance it out a bit and create from the freer place of uninhibited unknowing.

I feel a bit like I’ve broken though to something for myself and am excited to play by these new rules again.

What do you do to break free of your perfectionistic tendencies when making? Is this something you come up against too? Would loooove to hear your experiences!

This style of making is probably in a lot of people’s practice already, but if you haven’t allowed yourself to make by these rules before, I highly recommend. Especially if you want to use up old paint or have paper that have half started paintings that you can just rework over the top (it does take away that worry of wasting materials for a first venture in this direction! Whatever helps!!)

P.S. You can check out other artwork I have made that is for sale in my Etsy shop here.