I blame social media. At some point we started expecting perfection without going through the learning process.
Those stunning posts you see constantly? They’re a crock of… well, you know. More often than not, people do not share the journey they had to embark upon to get to the point they are today- they often only show the good, not the bad or ugly.
For example, you always see the end results of your friend’s house project- not what they had to go through along the way.
The same goes for baking. You scroll through your feed and see photos of beautiful baked goods. All of a sudden rather than an anomaly, perfection has become the expectation.
We have become increasingly aware that when it comes to bread baking, people are becoming more and more afraid to fail. They become intimidated by the learning process and are drowning in disappointment if their first loaf of bread doesn't look like the ones they saw on social media.
Failure helps us flourish.
Read that again.
We all have to start somewhere… and that somewhere isn't always pretty. Together we need to learn to be okay with that.
When Darrold was learning how to make bread, the number of “flops” was almost impressive. Some loaves were flat as a pancake, some he forgot the salt, some were as hard as a hockey puck, and some were just straight burnt. But what is admirable is that he never once quit because they were not perfect. Through resilience, he has become an impressive sourdough baker and…
He flourished by failing.
My father always told me that a mistake is only a problem if you don't learn from it.
I will leave you with this. No matter where you are on your bread baking journey. DO. NOT. QUIT.
Learn from every loaf, learn from every mistake, and have grace and patience with yourself during the learning process. I encourage you to keep a note sheet- track what you did, what worked, what didn't, and what you want to change.
Even at 75+ years old, I learn something new everytime I take out a bag of flour- you can too if you pay attention.
Remember- Rome wasn't built in a day- but goodness it's beautiful now.
All for now,
