little imperfections

We were tiling the big walls in our small bathroom and as I looked at the 18 boxes of tile sitting there it was easy to get overwhelmed.  Starting was easy, just spread out the goop and stick one up there.  Practicing teamwork with James as he made the easy cuts, we were able to move quickly through the field and deplete most of 2 cases.  Then we got to the window, and had to stop and think and measure and cut and cut again.   This progressed through the day as we would blaze through the open wall area, then get to the inevitable spot where a whole tile didn’t fit.  The bathroom at this moment sits half way complete, and from the right angle it appears perfect, but as is human nature, my eye gets drawn to the one tile in the corner that is protruding slightly further than the others, and the other one up top that looks like the cut happened on the wrong side.

When I was making wedding cakes I could always see the imperfections, the spots where the fondant had a small crease or the flowers were slightly larger or smaller, the marks from my spatula and the small cracks that could happen in the buttercream when transporting the cake.  But curiously I was the only one who would notice.  All the bride and groom and their guests would see is the completed masterpiece, my mistakes were invisible to them.  The mistakes in the tile will disappear to all but maybe a few once the grout is in there, this I know from experience.

The tile job is a microcosm of any big endeavor I have undertaken.  Its a myth that success happens overnight, its almost always a slow brick by brick process.  I have a big project sitting in the inbox of my brain and thinking about it definitely can make me veer to overwhelm if I let it.  I know that once I start it and enlist the right people to help me with it, we will progress quickly, then we will reach the inevitable spot where we need to test, shift, evaluate, and proceed again. I know it will be a success because my criteria for success is that we are adding value to our guests and opportunity to grow for our team.  There will be mistakes, rather, there had better be mistakes.  If we are not trying different ways of accomplishing the goal, learning, cutting, adjusting, we will never reach completion.

This is true for any project or company or vision or goal- the mistakes along the way are part of  the process.  Making the cuts and adjust and continue moving forward- no one else will see or remember the mistakes you make.