Allowed to be a Beginner

Allowed to be a Beginner is part of a series of blog posts and projects that focus on giving ourselves permission to be creative. Today you have permission to to be a beginner.

Are you a beginner?

Most of the time, I spend my life learning all that I can to be the best I can be in whatever I’m doing … life, work, art, home. Perfect would be awesome, but I’m not a computer, so I’m striving for excellence instead of perfection. I want to give life my best effort, and I have high expectations.

I enjoy learning … improving myself and my skills, but I also like to be good at what I do.

One day, as I listened to a favorite, life-giving podcast, The Next Right Thing by Emily P. Freeman, episode 31: “Be a Beginner”. She said,” We want our circumstances to change … But when they change, we often don’t give ourselves permission to be new within them. Instead, we want to rush ahead to mastery.”

And I wondered,

When do I let myself be a beginner?

I don’t.

Being a beginner feels like weakness, less than, and not good enough. But what if I allowed myself to be a beginner (because, if I’m honest, I am a beginner at something most of the time … out of my pure love of learning. There is always a new interest, something new to learn. And new is always a beginning)?

The idea felt refreshing, allowing myself to be at the beginning stage. And I may have breathed an audible sigh as I finished my podcast and run that day.

What impacted me about this concept?

A beginner is allowed to be new to something, to start at the beginning, to not know how to do it, to have simple questions.

my beginner faux calligraphy
my beginner watercolor cards

Why?

Because we can’t start anywhere but the beginning.

Can you jump in on year three of calligraphy practice without first making one stroke with a pen?
Do you conquer Calculus without first taking basic Math or learning to count?
Does anyone dance gracefully across a stage without first learning to stand?
Can you write a book without first learning how to recognize and understand a word?
How about soccer? Can you play soccer without first trying to kick a ball?

No. Of course not.

Learning doesn’t happen with out beginnings.

And … learning doesn’t happen without mistakes, scribbles, whiffs … without missing the goal, blobbing the ink, falling down, asking some obvious questions, learning what not to do.

That’s normal. Learning. Being a beginner.

And if the learning continues in spite of the difficulties, it is also normal to grow and develop.

If we start. And continue. If we don’t quit.

Being a beginner is hard. Maybe that’s why I avoid feeling like a beginner. I know the beginning has lots of mistakes in it, lots of doing it over again and that certainly doesn’t look like mastery …

But it’s how I learn, grow, and adjust.

We all have to start at the beginning when we learn something new. What if we gave ourselves permission to begin? Permission to be a beginner, to make mistakes and to keep trying.

If we are allowed to begin and be at the beginning stage, improvement and growth will come too. Not maybe. We will improve … unless we never begin.

What do you want to start? Where are you a beginner? Do you need to give yourself permission to make mistakes and give yourself time to get better? Where do you need to decide to keep trying?

Above are a couple of pictures from a little later in my learning process. They weren’t created at the very beginning, but they still have room from improvement. Today, my lettering and watercolor have the benefit of even more practice behind them. Check out the links to my alphabet style study to see my improvements from A-Z.

A recent example of my hand lettering from Letter Z and Zinnia. I see the improvement. Do you?
A recent example of hand lettering and watercolor from Letter V and Vision.

And how exactly do I let myself be a beginner when I’d rather skip that part and just be good?

This is where I’ll bring you back to art. After all, this blog is about art and creativity, even if the concepts apply to many other areas.

If you’re here to learn a little about life and a little about art, especially watercolor and lettering, I’m here to let you know that you’re allowed to be a beginner. And each day that you practice after that first day, you will be less a beginner but no less learning.

When I accept my beginner self, I can accept the mistakes that will come in the learning and begin to enjoy the process of learning. The process of watching growth happen. Then, those moments of practice become less frustrating and more relaxing … like a breeze on the beach on a well-earned vacation, a moment of peace … an oasis moment.

Be a Beginner in Watercolor and Lettering

If you are just starting into lettering, check out these posts:

If you want to begin with watercolors, check out these posts:

You’re allowed to be a beginner. So begin … enjoy the learning … and save some of your first projects so you can pull them out later to see your improvement.

Write it. Draw it. Dance it. Dream it.