20 Seconds of Creative Courage

 Having the courage to start and try things is everything in life.

For a long while we were conditioned to believe that trying but not doing well meant failure. And failure comes with stigmas that are hard to shake even as you age.

Remember getting the A and feeling brilliant? Or, trying then failing and getting an F (or for some a C!) …then feeling like an absolute loser. Everyone has a grades story.

But then you move beyond the grade bubble and realize trying and failing is one of the best ways to learn. Unless you’re afraid to try + afraid to fail, which is the reality for many people. Too many unknowns when you try something new. Too many what ifs.

The tech world prides itself on fast fails. Most entrepreneurs are armed with oodles of stories of their terrific failures. Those tend to be their favorite stories.

My parents always told me I was harder on myself then they could ever be. Failures really crushed me. I got a few F’s in school but luckily, my parents saw me for me. My dad made it clear that while there are many people who are great in math, it was ok that I wasn’t. Then he’d say I could someday hire those who aced math because I’d own the company. That always gave me a big smile.  My parents thankfully appreciated that I was willing to explore + try all sorts of creative things even if many of them became nothing more than an experiment. Except they did become something more… they became my courage. It was an inside thing. Not a ribbon or medal or a trophy, but a real live massive jolt of courage which turned into confidence.

When you try new things, you grow + your courage grows, but you need to start…you need to begin. AND you don’t need to be great, you just need to get in there and go, and keep going! I am such a believer in this.

The confidence you’ll gain when you try new things is massive.

Some things you’ll try then abandon. So what. You don’t need to master everything. Sometimes you need to try new things just to see if you’re interested in them. If not, try something else, and then something after that. Try + grow + learn + enjoy the fails, because there are gold nuggets in the fails. Repeat.

I’ll be here waving your flag. Just begin…20 seconds!

Cheers, love + goodness from the countryside xxx