Today, I’m going to talk about creative minds. I think that simplifying helps us avoid failure.
My easy mistake in baking bread
Recently, I have valued my everyday life. One of them is baking bread. I’m enjoying it. I have tried some bread, such as a French baguette, milk bread, and chocolate chip bread. I had never known that freshly baked bread was so tasty.
So every piece of bread was delicious, although I’m still making many trials and errors.
And several days ago, I learned an interesting thing from my small failure. That is, simplification helps us avoid failure.
Forgetting to put butter
Several days ago, I tried to make chocolate chip bread. I like chocolate. I once made it previously. And that was great. So I wanted to make it again.
Then I noticed that I had made a little mistake while making the bread dough. I had forgotten to put melted butter in the dough.
I had been able to add it at that point, but I decided to try leaving out the butter. In other words, I chose to make a small failure. Because I didn’t know how much the butter affected the taste of bread.
I sometimes have such intentional failures when I don’t know the logic yet. Because I can understand how much butter works for the bread. If I understand butter’s role and importance, I can make the best bread for me.
Failure gives us wisdom
And I also noticed that this is a way of being creative. Many people are afraid of failure. Because they believe failure is a completely bad thing. And they also believe that the amount of success is important. It means that the fewer failures, the better.
But I don’t think so. Because we can learn how materials work from a small failure. And that failure won’t ruin our products if we fulfill simpler elements.
In my case, I forgot to put butter in it. That was a failure. But I knew that it wouldn’t ruin my bread. Because I fulfilled the simpler elements of the bread.
So, let’s simplify bread here. We can understand that we can make it from only flour and water. So I can say that I could make at least “bread” or “the bread with chocolate chips.” Even if I cannot make “perfectly flavored chocolate chip bread.”
Creating new styles
That simplification gives us safety and curiosity. So we can do trial and error without the anxiety of loss. And we can also learn how each material works. Moreover, sometimes we can find new styles.
In my case, after I had baked the chocolate chip bread without butter, I tried to taste it. I felt that butter was not so important to me. I also added vanilla essence. It had enough rich flavor for me even if I didn’t add butter.
In addition, I found that it was easy to eat if I leave out the butter when I baked bread in my skillet. Because I also use some vegetable oil with my skillet. Those oils make my bread a little soggy. But if I removed the butter, it became comfortable to eat. And if I wanted to add the flavor of butter, I could also butter it after the baking.
So I decided not to add the melted butter from the next baking. This means I created my style. If I adopt this style, there are only benefits for me. It’s easier and simpler to make. I can enjoy it. And I can reduce the cost of butter.
Thanks to the small failure, I was able to do trial and error. Then this new style was born. This is my style of baking the best bread with a skillet.
Applying this wisdom to our lives
We can apply this wisdom not only to bake bread but also to create our lives. Many people are afraid of failure. They think that failure means loss and unhappiness.
But we can gain profit and satisfaction by simplifying what we want. If we simplify enough, we can create at least “freshly baked bread,” even if we fail at “perfectly flavored chocolate chip bread.” And we know that what we desire most is freshly baked bread. Chocolate chip is only an additional flavor.
In the same way, if we want a free life, we can simplify its essence. If so, we might be able to create a “freedom life,” even if we fail to create a “freedom, praised by everyone, affluent, and perfect life.”
Conclusion
So I think that simplifying helps us avoid failure. To be more precise, simplifying elements helps us achieve the minimum level of satisfaction and avoid total failure.
If we want to create our future without anxiety, this logic might help us find a good path and avoid critical failure.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you at the next one.
