New Mistakes

Always make new mistakes.
—Esther Dyson, internet entrepreneur, cosmonaut

You’ve heard the well-worn definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. Making old mistakes may not really be insanity, but it’s certainly not productive. Still, I keep making old mistakes. My singular challenge today is to make a new mistake instead.

It sounds odd, in a way, to want to make new mistakes. But what it really means is that I’ve learned from my old ones and have stopped my insane insistence on repeating what hasn’t worked and never will. If I’m making new mistakes, it means I’m trying things I haven’t tried, looking for solutions to problems I haven’t solved.

Thomas Edison said, in 1890, “I would construct a theory and work on its lines until I found it was untenable. Then it would be discarded at once and another theory evolved. This was the only possible way for me to work out the problem. ... I speak without exaggeration when I say that I have constructed 3,000 different theories in connection with the electric light, each one of them reasonable and apparently likely to be true. Yet only in two cases did my experiments prove the truth of my theory” (Talks with Edison, Harpers, vol. 80, p. 425).

Creativity for tomorrow is always among my nightly prayers. But how often do I really follow through on the deeply difficult work that can make such a prayer come true?

Ask yourself: When was the last time you managed a truly new doozy, a whopper of unprecedented scope and proportion? When was the last time you wiped out completely because you were trying something new? It might not have been the solution you were looking for, but you got closer by taking a calculated risk, eliminating one more dead end.

If I make a new mistake today, it will be humbling. But unless I’m trying new paths, I won’t find the right path. It’s time to take that risk. And this time, I might just succeed.

Along the Way, I wish you God’s peace on today’s stage of your Lenten spiritual journey. May Christ’s companionship bless you with confidence for the day, comfort you in trouble, and put a spring of joy in your step.