The Big Introduction or, in other words, the perfect method to fail at life
"Hi, world…" – this is definitely how I‘m supposed to start my first blog post, right? The one where I tell you how I was a total loser, found a super inspiring quote while reading a book, became a billionaire by the time I was 19, and crushed obstacles happily ever after? Although I probably wouldn‘t have minded such a scenario, let me just stop your imagination right there: No Such Thing Happened. No, I wasn‘t a total loser; Yes, I was a bookworm (but they say education is good hey?); and No, I never really have done anything super extraordinary. To be completely honest, I'm still living a pretty average life: have my 9-5 job, go out every now and then and battle my reoccurring inner demons when I get annoyed by people doing things I unconsciously do myself. And afterwards, of course, I read spiritual books and hope enlightenment is going to hit me as soon as possible because I don't have time to wait. So I just wanted us to be on the same page here – I'm no superhero, and I'm not offering a fast track to happiness nor millionaireship because, hell, if I knew how, I would be enjoying my modern minimalistic house in the forest a long time ago.
But I CAN tell you why I'm here though. I have done certain things for so long without any results that I figured out why they don't work. Or so I think. Because, as the saying goes, I don't make the same mistake twice. I make it five or six times, just to be sure. And as well as that, I picked a couple of useful things while traveling on a life journey which I would like to share. But most importantly, I have a "To Do" list as long as the most dragging day at work you ever had, and I'm definitely not planning to leave it for my next life if I get one. I want to learn things. I want to experience life. And above all, I want to make my Dreams a reality. So I have a long way to go.
And because you've been an excellent reader so far and paid some attention to these scribbles, I want to share with you a pretty important discovery I made. In the past, I would often stop myself from doing things. Especially starting something new or going after things that I really want. And my excuse would be – ‘what if it‘s not "THAT" ‘, or ‘it‘s probably not going to work because …‘ (entering any ridiculous excuse that I have in my head wrapped in a shiny self-doubt gift paper). But in reality, I was just overthinking and overcomplicating things. I was voluntarily putting myself under the stone called Perfectionism and let it crush me to the point where I would be paralyzed to do anything. However, underneath all this heaviness, my idea lightbulb suddenly flashed and I realized why!
It was purely because I was looking for a miracle! This one huge light flashing world trembling thing that would make my life perfect forever. This one Instagram photo or this one piece of writing that would bring me thousands of new followers. This one dream job that I would enjoy doing for the rest of my life. This one really really good book, which would re-wire my brain completely. Or this one meditation technique that would get me to an enlightened state and leave me smiling all day long.
WELL GUESS WHAT. When you are looking for that one magical thing it becomes one hell of a mission. I mean, imagine never making mistakes or wrong choices. Oh boy. All of that excess pressure when you try to produce any content and you just get that creative block and can‘t get through it, just because in the back of your head you know this thing you‘re going to produce HAS to be perfect and has to be worth Millions (well, not exactly, but your mind makes it appear that way. Exaggeration and stuff). All of it sounds pretty tough, right? I would say even impossible. Not because it might never happen, the world is full of surprises. But because all of these things take time. You can‘t just go from zero to hero in a second. There is actually something in between that space called process. So instead of magically trying to achieve everything in your head, you take the first step towards the desired direction and then try to perfect it along the way. Some things work, some things don‘t, but through trial and error, you just build upon it. With every lesson learned your creation becomes better and better, so you just build, build and build until one day if you‘re patient enough, it grows into something beautiful.
And if you like me were stuck in the same thinking pattern, realizing all this becomes so freeing. You no longer believe in perfectionism, it doesn‘t control you anymore. You allow yourself to just start new things just to see where they lead. You allow yourself to make mistakes, screw up and get up again. Because you know that this one magical thing that would fix all your problems doesn‘t exist. It‘s all just small things that add up and take you places.
And that‘s where the beauty of this world lies. Building stuff up and tearing it down just to start building again. Not even doing something super extraordinary. Just making your own rules and having a walk through life. So that when you suck at drawing, and you create something which looks like a 3-year-old drawing taken out of the washing machine, your face would light up with a proud grin and you‘d nod your head slowly with satisfaction as this would be the best thing you‘ve ever done so far. So stop failing by default. Create for joy. Look for experiences. Just take a walk through life and see where you end up when the bells ring. It will be worth it in the end.
