One in Four

I've mentioned my passion for cooking previously, and in the post-holiday focus on shedding pounds, I've been trying new recipes--low calorie ones.  The fact that they are low calorie doesn't really seem to be relevant to my discovery though.  I find that when I am trying new recipes about one in four is really great.  One in four is OK. It will become great with some alteration.  At least, two in four are busts.  I can alter that ratio slightly by being more discriminating about the source of my recipes, but not significantly.  One in four seems to be about the ratio for success.

Tonight I tried one in the "bust" category.  I did finish one serving. It provided sustenance, but while it didn't gag me, it certainly didn't excite my taste buds either. When I had eaten, the first thing I did was throw the recipe away. No amount of doctoring would fix this one.  I started to wrap up the leftovers, as I would generally do, feeling duty-bound not to waste food.  But just as the foil was going over the edge of the full casserole, I thought: why would I want to do that to myself?....again!  I did something I have almost never done: I threw away perfectly good food, and I didn't even feel bad about it. 

Trying the recipe had one positive benefit.  I came home tired, and I've been fighting a cold. If I hadn't gone into the kitchen and launched into the new adventure, I would probably have been in bed an hour ago.  By the time I was done cooking, I actually felt pretty good.  Whether it was edible or not, doing something I enjoy gave me energy, and that can't be bad.

However, what I have been pondering since throwing away the experiment is this.  What if I approached life with the expectation that one in four new things I try will be great, one in four will be OK, and two will be totally busts.  If I went into life with that expectation, then I could allow myself to fail half the time without regret and without beating myself up.  I certainly wouldn't call myself a failure because the law of experiments was prevailing. 

I am certain that I would approach new projects with more energy, and more than likely, as happened tonight, I would get more energy out of doing them.  I may even begin to see the "busts" as paving the way to success.  I just have to get two busts out of the way before I am in the winning zone.  I may even start celebrating the failures.    It is said that Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric light bulb, actually failed over 900 times before he had what most of us would consider a success.  He, by contrast, considered every one of the 900 attempts a success because he had discovered one thing that would not work.

Adventure and creativity are high values for me.  Yet when I think about this new approach to adventure and creativity, I haven't been approaching life as I would if I really valued the process of adventure and creativity.

Almost every time I conduct a retreat, my designs are original, crafted to meet the special needs of the leadership or work team for which I am facilitating.  Although I don't think my "bust" rate is 50%, I find that many are OK--they move the group in question, and it is able to work together more effectively.  I am not sure I've had any real busts for a couple of decades.  But about one in four is pure magic. 

Tomorrow I will facilitate, and I have a very good feeling about this.  And, if magic doesn't happen, I will know that I am building momentum to magic, just following the law of experiments.  Just knowing that will be magic...for me and my sense of adventure.