I’m one of the fortunate folk who remember the beginnings of the Internet, but didn’t grow up with it being an integral part of our childhood. Yes we’d spend a couple of hours on MSN Messenger or Myspace talking to the same people we’d left only half an hour before at the bus stop, but we weren’t tethered to devices.

Thankfully we were able to have awful haircuts and questionable taste in clothes and the only person who has any evidence of it is our Mum’s in a box kept under the bed in the spare room. Our bad sartorial/music/life choices were not accessible to others on a global stage. We were able to experiment and make mistakes without it being live streamed. 

These are important parts of our lives. The times in-between all the other stuff. The time we allow ourselves to try things out, find our way. What do we feel passionate about? Who do we want to surround ourselves with? Where do we feel at home?

We can have several “renaissances” throughout our lifetimes. It’s very rare we will find our taste unchanged from the age of 15 to 30. Thankfully I have left studded belts and an obsession with My Chemical Romance’s debut album in the past. 

This idea of experimenting appears to be celebrated during our teenage years, maybe even up until the point of our mid 20s, but then something funny happens. By 25, post-graduation, you are, according to most media sources, meant to be a fully polished, well-rounded version of yourself. You must know where you’re heading, have at least one “I’ve overcome this struggle to get here” inspirational story and 2 promotions within the first year of the “incredible” job you've landed by manifesting alone. 

Just open LinkedIn. Go on I dare you. Everyone has their s**t together there. So why don’t you? You’re not sure you’re in the right place. You don’t have the dream job or even know what that would look like. You don’t own your own home. You’re not married to a self-made, protein shake, billionaire. You haven’t read The Chimp Paradox. You struggle to spell affirmations let alone say them and you don’t holiday abroad 5 times a year. Oh and your in your 30s *gasp* TIME IS RUNNING OUT. Jeez what a failure. 

Let’s take a beat here. Firstly I’d advise closing your LinkedIn tab. I don’t need to tell you what you already know but everyone is sharing what they want you to see.

For every one polished, shiny, “completely smashing it”, themed post there will be 10 that would never see the light of day. One about that person regretting a decision. One post about that person struggling with their mental health. One post about that person thinking they have to promote a perfect version of themselves to be accepted. But isn’t that where the interest lies? In the imperfections. In the learning about who we are. 

Newsflash - Humans aren’t perfect. Not even Margot Robbie, even though she’s a lot closer to it than most. We’re flawed, we make mistakes and we are constantly having to learn and re-learn about who we are and who we want to become.

Yes, when we have moments of success and we work hard to pull things together, we should celebrate and shout our achievements from the rooftops. But there is just as much, if not more, value in the bits that happen in between. The bits where we become more aware and accepting of ourselves. 

If we could be more open in our 30s to celebrate the same type of experimentation and mistake making of our teens I think we could all be a bit more relaxed and, therefore, creative in our thinking. When we are not constantly striving for great, lots of good things can happen. Ok so the pottery I was making below was good in the loosest sense of the word, but I enjoyed the process... and that boilersuit.

I’ve literally just had a conversation with Dave about a post we’re working on to mark our 2nd anniversary as a studio. What was wrong with the original draft? Nothing at first glance. It read well and there was a good structure. It was just a little too polished, too professional.

Were we being honest? Not entirely. Were we just telling our audience what we thought they’d want to hear from a reflective post? Yes probably. See, it can subconsciously trip us up this need to be perfect and have everything figured out. 

We’ve gone back to the drawing board with the post. We’re hoping it allows us to create something honest. A worthwhile read that we know comes from a place of trying hard, but knowing it’s ok to admit we don’t have it all figured out yet. Refreshing isn’t it?