You’ve got an idea or a goal or a hobby or a side hustle that you think you’d enjoy a lot. You’d be good at it. You can close your eyes and see you doing great. You’ve never done anything like it before, but it’s just calling to you. I know the secret to success. How do I know what the secret is without even knowing what you want to do? Trust.
Here’s the secret: Just start… anywhere. Just start.
Lots of times, when we are faced with something, we feel… hesitation. We want to research and get everything right before we start. We want to make sure we have the right equipment and the right tools and the right knowledge. We also want to wait until we feel ready to start.
But that’s never going to come until after you’ve already started. One thing I have been telling myself over and over again is that the first step to being good at something is to be really, really bad at something. I never watched the show Adventure Time, but I’m pretty sure I’m poorly quoting a scene from that show.
Perfectionism doesn’t always look like you might think it does
I never really saw myself as a perfectionist. Because I don’t spend hours and hours correcting and perfecting things until they are just right. But one day, it hit me. I don’t do that because I don’t even start things that I don’t think I would have a natural gift for. Yikes!! Because although I like to think of myself as very talented, I don’t have unlimited natural gifts!
I want to write a blog. I want to make an app. I want to have creative hobbies. I want to start healthy habits. But I don’t believe that I can do those things well right now, so I struggle internally about them.
When, um, DUH! I’m not going to be good at them! I’m going to be really bad at them! But when you try new things, neurons fire in your brain and build new connections. (I’m pretty sure, please correct me if this is wrong.)
Allow it to feel good to be bad at things
Feeling slightly uncomfortable. Feeling a little overwhelmed. Feeling kinda lost. Can feel pretty bad! We try to avoid these feelings! Because of course we do!
But remember these feelings (in the context of learning new things) are super great news! It means that you are choosing to develop yourself and learn something new. It’s growing pains.
Allow yourself to be refreshed and feel alive by being outside of your comfort zone.
You may like my writing. You may not like my writing. And while I hope you do like it, I know I like it. I like the process of writing and creating. Sometimes, I worry that I’m not very good at it. But the way to get good at it is not to sit and worry about being good at it. It’s to actually do it! To start and try and fail and try again.
And one last thing…
If you are doing something you love, it will energize you. If it brings you joy and it’s important to you, you’ll do it more. You don’t get that spark and inertia by thinking about it, though. You have to actually start and try and do.