Directions

I have an amazing sense of direction. I can find my way almost anywhere, especially if I’ve been there once before. I rarely need to use Google Maps to guide me, unless I’m in unfamiliar territory. This has been true my entire life. And when paper maps were a ‘thing’ I rarely used one. In fact, it took me years to warm up to using Google to guide me. 

I blame this strong sense of direction on my reluctance to follow directions in other areas of my life. I will peruse a recipe and then wing it. I add a dash of this and stir instead of fold. 

When I sew I approach it in the same way. I look at something, am confident I can do it, and dive in. It’s only when something doesn’t quite work out as I anticipated that I realize maybe I should have paid more attention to the directions. Oops. I did it again. Isn’t that why seam rippers were invented? 

I am in awe of my confidence and annoyed with my inability to learn from my overconfidence. The thing is, I do learn from my mistakes. I learn so that the next time I work on a similar project, cooking, sewing or other, I recall the previous error of my ways. But when I do something new, I dive in, just as I always have. 

How do you approach a new project? Do you follow the directions there to guide you and prevent silly mistakes? Or, do you, like me, know you’ve ‘got it’ only to find out maybe, just maybe, directions are included for a reason?