I am learning so much by the anonymous responses I keep on receiving to the questions I posed this week (and you are warmly invited to add yours). One the recurring themes I am reading is fear of failure. It goes like this: Q: If you could do anything you wanted to, right now, without worries, limitations, or hurting anyone, what would you do? A: XXXX (play the guitar. Learn to speak Italian. Perform in a play. Sell my art....) Q: What, exactly, is in the way of you doing that? A: I'm afraid I'll fail. Over and over again. Today, I am studying a book on podcasting, as I get closer to launching my Essential Happiness Podcast . And I find these words, by podcast guru Paul Colligan. They ring true so much for me, I want to share them with you (and really, forget the podcasting part. It does not matter. These words apply to just about anything we are afraid to BEGIN.) He says: "I wanted to be a podcaster. I had zero experience; I had zero online presence. I'd never spoken into a microphone before or interviewed anybody... but I wanted to be a podcaster. The only way that I was going to be a podscaster was by doing that thing, was by podcasting. I was willing to have the courage to be bad, because it does take that courage. For a decent amount of time, slowly getting better by practicing the craft, by pressing that red button every single day, talking to somebody that was so much more successful, so much more eloquent, so much more polished, so much more impressive than me. Bumbling around, acting the fool, stumbling on my words, trying to have a coherent conversation. But every time, I'd think "Wow, that was bad, but I did a little better on this or on that." *** I love this. Having the courage to be bad. Having the awareness that even though we may be bad, we won't die. And that we may actually, eventually, become really good. As someone who started a bakery without really knowing how to bake, I have a whole lot of respect for the power of this awareness. .
Today could be a good day to move less. Move less with our minds, with our thoughts, with our questions. Today could be a good day to let things catch up to us, and for us to simply welcome them, without having to change them, explain them, or even name them. Today could be a good day to do less, and be more. In order to let Life flow, we have to Trust.
We have to Trust, even when the outside seems untrustworthy. We have to Trust because if we don't, we dim our light - and when many lights get dimmed, the world starts to shrink. Yes, we may get hurt, disappointed and betrayed. And when that happens, we may fall to our knees and clutch our guts, doubled over with the pain, the hopelessness, the deep pit of loss. Yet, it will be better to fall to our knees because of the sweetness of our vulnerability than to live hardened and impermeable to the deliciousness of life. |
SCARED OF THE SACRED
HAPPINESS SCHOOL:
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