This phrase – we don’t celebrate the first pancake – was one of the gems from a recent two-part podcast.
Brené Brown, Adam Grant and Simon Sinek gathered for an extended conversation without agenda. Simon hosted it for his podcast A Bit of Optimism.
It’s a lovely shorthand to remind us that it’s not about getting it perfect the first time.
That’s not the job of the first pancake.
Neither is it the role of the first draft. Of anything.
The job of the draft is to give us a spade to start digging. To bring to the surface the material we might work with.
Trying to make the first attempt the best and final shot is not what it’s there for.
Instead, we use the test of the first ‘pancake’ to demonstrate what we need to do next. Raise the temperature, less fat, or different thickness. On the way to celebrating the best when we finally create it.
It is challenging to modify our expectations – of ourselves, each other and the things we create – in a world that expects instant results.
Yet we know how good the third pancake can be.
~ The story of the cooker… We bought this early version of a new low-energy range for The Waterside and then realised we needed to put it in the farmhouse. Fast forward to the day we switched it on – Shrove Tuesday, 2017 – and tried to make pancakes. After 20 minutes, we gave up. The moral of the story: match your tools to your endeavours. Our range is best suited to slow cooking – pancakes are a disaster!
This Week
Stepping across the threshold with courage and hope.
- Monday: Choosing how to live this day
- Tuesday: The gift of perspective
- Wednesday: Making meaning is never solitary
- Thursday: Being awake to new possibilities
- Friday: Why ducks don’t need maps