What do we learn from the cracks?

Nothing like pulling a cracked plate off the shelf to remind me that “progress” doesn’t always look pretty.

I pulled this plate off the shelf yesterday and felt my stomach drop. Somewhere between shaping and drying, it cracked — right down the middle.

My first reaction? Ugh. Failure. Hours of work, gone.

But then I stopped myself. Because this is exactly what I talk about with clients all the time: growth isn’t supposed to look perfect. The cracks are part of the process.

Sometimes we don’t see where the weak spots are until pressure exposes them. In clay, it’s moisture or thickness. In work and life, it’s boundaries, assumptions, habits. Either way, it’s feedback.

When we can look at the cracks with curiosity instead of judgment, we get better. We refine. We start again, a little wiser and a little steadier.

And as Leonard Cohen wrote, “There’s a crack in everything — that’s how the light gets in.”

So I’m keeping this piece as a reminder — not of failure, but of process. Because whether it’s clay or career or leadership, we’re all still shaping, learning, and becoming.

What cracks have taught you the most lately?