The other morning the man I live with and I were chatting about our three offspring. This is a regular occurrence as parents we all wonder what our kids are going to be or where they are going to go. If they will ever move out and we can finally use the dishwasher once a week instead of once a day.
There we were, talking about our kids. When my husband brought up the point that so many of us just don't want to try. That we are so afraid of messing up, of failing at what we are wanting to try that we don't ever take that first step. That somehow it's not okay for us to try something, decide it's not our thing and then walk away. There are immeasurable times that I would rather just not try something than admit I tried something and it wasn't the right thing for me to pursue.
I/We are all petrified that we don't know everything. That we are not the experts in all the things. Which is an absolute truth. You cannot know everything about everything. This is true most in parenting. Or in starting a new job. Or in going after a new hobby. We spend all this time researching the topic. Reading books, listening to podcasts or watching YouTube tutorials. We have conversations with people that are doing what we want to do. To try and gather intelligence to help us make a choice. There is an underlying assumption that we have to know it all, be it all, have all the questions answered before we can start something. Or try something new.
But what usually happens is we see the person that has been doing our interest for a long time. And then we think we will never be at their level, so we just lay the idea down and then walk over it as we continue down the path of our mundane life. We convince ourselves that our efforts will never let us achieve that person's status.
Here's the secret:
When next you are driving in your car and you get an idea, don't be quick to dismiss that idea as dumb or as something that can never happen. Don't go so far down the path of what-ifs that you get to the place of talking yourself out of the idea before it can even become a tangible reality.
Take that idea and write it down. Look at it. Make a list of the small, low-hanging fruit you can grab onto. Then take the next step up the ladder to get a little closer to the goal. Keep going until you've got a whole bushel full of achievements.
Stay curious. Stay loose. See what might happen.
There we were, talking about our kids. When my husband brought up the point that so many of us just don't want to try. That we are so afraid of messing up, of failing at what we are wanting to try that we don't ever take that first step. That somehow it's not okay for us to try something, decide it's not our thing and then walk away. There are immeasurable times that I would rather just not try something than admit I tried something and it wasn't the right thing for me to pursue.
I/We are all petrified that we don't know everything. That we are not the experts in all the things. Which is an absolute truth. You cannot know everything about everything. This is true most in parenting. Or in starting a new job. Or in going after a new hobby. We spend all this time researching the topic. Reading books, listening to podcasts or watching YouTube tutorials. We have conversations with people that are doing what we want to do. To try and gather intelligence to help us make a choice. There is an underlying assumption that we have to know it all, be it all, have all the questions answered before we can start something. Or try something new.
But what usually happens is we see the person that has been doing our interest for a long time. And then we think we will never be at their level, so we just lay the idea down and then walk over it as we continue down the path of our mundane life. We convince ourselves that our efforts will never let us achieve that person's status.
Here's the secret:
No one knows what the answers are before they start.
We can't even know what the questions are if we don't begin.
Take that idea and write it down. Look at it. Make a list of the small, low-hanging fruit you can grab onto. Then take the next step up the ladder to get a little closer to the goal. Keep going until you've got a whole bushel full of achievements.
Stay curious. Stay loose. See what might happen.
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