I’m restarting a project after a 10 month hiatus.
It’s just a minor piece of arts education advocacy in my community, and one that I maintained successfully for about 1 1/2 years before I fell off a cliff with it and couldn’t pick back up.
There were three steps I had to take to get back to it – back to something that works and I’m passionate about.
- Acknowledge my failure
- Forgive my failure
- Approach my collaborators to apologize for my failure and get support to start again.
It took a long time – almost a year – to achieve those three steps, due to my own guilt over having failed my collaborators.
While I worked through them, who lost out? Students, collaborators, the schools, the community.
I’ve forgiven myself for that, too. I’m taking the long view, aiming for consistency, and hoping to pick myself up faster the next time I fail. (I will.)
What have you let slide because you are feeling guilty over past failure? When will you be ready to start again?