On Having the Courage to Be Bad

 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.