Thank you!!! I just learned of this series and am going to listen to everything from now on. I'm not in the best place, mentally, atm, so this is really helping!

I can't upload a field guide pic, because sh** just keeps on happening. (My printer broke. Uploading stood stuff stopped working on my iPad. I spent a day at the ER, because my doc thought that having breathing problems with a ffp2 mask means I'm having an embolism. And then, just as I was sitting down to create this project, LO wet his bed. And mine. And three blankets and a pillow. I mean, like, wtf is this? At this rate a power outage ... or maybe some nuclear disaster is next on the agenda...)

Anyway, with life being a shice fest, and all, sitting down to work through these issues is actually really helpful. So, I'm seizing this rare moment of peaceful quiet to think through your prompts:

1. A “failure” you’ve recently experienced on your creative journey,

There's too many to list. I'm not good at making decisions, so I'll give a few examples, to reduce my "burden" in that regard:

a) I tried to paint something, and things didn't work out the way I'd hoped. An example is the picture I uploaded. Those were supposed to be several layers of butterflies. Instead it's a colourful mess. I got so discouraged, I abandoned the painting.

b) I wanted to make my own homepage and even bought webspace. All manner of bad things started happening and I'm still on square one. Haven't even registered a domain...

c) I got some artist materials from a company and was supposed to pay about using them on social media. Then said happened. Legitimately horrible stuff. And so I haven't posted anything in Instagram or anywhere else since... like, I don't even know? I feel guilty, ashamed and ... timid? I'm not just scared to share my art, I'm downright scared to talk to anybody.

d) I was going to take all classes in this series, upload projects, make it perfect and poignant. I've already written about what happened next.

2. The lesson you learned from that failure, and

3. Which tip you're implementing from this class to move beyond the fear of failure and forward on your journey.

I'd say these points belong together for me, because I hadn't learned anything from these failures until I stopped to define and reframe how I failed. I've realized the following:

a) So the picture looks very different from what I've imagined, but looking at it now... I like the colours, and. I might still try to make a painting out of it yet.

b) Starting a homepage it's better done earlier than later. So, I haven't started a homepage until now. That's not ideal, but I can still do that from here on out. I mean, as they say: the best time to plant a tree was 30 (or whatever number of) years ago. The second best time is now.

c) I have legitimate reasons for not posting. I can explain what was going on. I can still do something about this now.

d) Done is better than perfect.

From all of these, I can define what failing means in my case: Failure means failing to act. It isn't something I do, but something I don't do.

I keep getting rocks (nah, mountains... whole mountain ranges) thrown in my way. So be it. Things might take me time, not as long as I haven't given up entirely, I haven't even failed. I've merely suffered a set-back.

Atm, I am so deep down on my hidey cave, I can't make up art related measurable goals. However, I can try to work myself out of this mess. One goal I am setting for myself is to listen to this series! Others would be working through the self-help goal setting book I just bought, as well as possibly getting some counseling. And then I'll work on turning my failures into successes! :)