We rationalize making ourselves small because we think that’s being humble. We talk ourselves out of our own good ideas because we’re certain they can’t be truly good if only we had them.
Don’t let the voices bickering in your mind talk you out of doing things that are magical and wonderful and interesting and vital and odd and important and silly and yours.
There is immense freedom in making any kind of attempt.
Might as well get out of our own ways and try.
Nobody else is coming to save us, anyway.
Reason one: Because your opinion is as valid as anybody else’s. And your work just might matter to people other than you.
Reason two: Because your absolute worst and nastiest critic is the one already living in your own head, and they’re the voice of trash.
Reason three: If we’re a mere (that rhyme tickles me oddly) six degrees of Kevin Bacon from everyone in real life, then we’re only one or two clicks away from all forms of everyone’s support and help (contact info, youtube videos, books, lessons, dark web secrets) online.
Reason four: Because anything done with care and craft is art, and all art is subjectively evaluated—which leads to absolutely no consensus on quality ever. The freedom of this fact is a loophole as big as civilization.
Reason five: Because haters are bitter because they were too afraid to try.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
—Teddy Freakin’ Roosevelt
Reason six: Because being freaked out is a great way to remind yourself that you’re vividly alive.
Reason seven: Because making attempts can highjack fate and re-write expectations. Your identity is what you do, not what you might have done if only…
Reason eight: Because never beginning means you will always be not-good at whatever you want to do.
Reason nine: Because the thing you want to do will only be valuable once you do it, and until then, everything else will automatically matter more.
Reason ten: Because doing nothing is a great way to erase your value before you’re even dead.
Do what you know you need to do. It’s important enough that you want it. And it will be even more important once you do it.
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