'You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great'
- ZigZiglar
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| Image sourced from Tumblr |
There is a common preconception that in order to achieve great things you have to be good, real good, before you even begin to give something a try. For me, there have been things like learning a new language, travelling or learning how to swim that I have put off and avoided for a long time now. While I'm excited at the prospect of being fluent in a foreign language or being able to go on holiday and swim, words of self-doubt float around until I've convinced myself that it's not worth pursuing anymore
'It's going to take me ages to learn this... There's no point, I'm gonna be rubbish at it anyway... Maybe Ill try it some other time...'
The flaw in this way of thinking is that stopping myself from doing or trying something new means that I'll never achieve anything. As awesome as it would be to just bypass the embarrassing failures at the beginning, they are an integral part of every learning process.
There are very few things in life that a person is naturally gifted at. So if you never embark on a new adventure or attempt a new skill because you don't have the natural born talent to begin with, you stay stuck. Every expert was once a beginner and for every single success story, there's probably numerous undocumented accounts of failures, frustration and desires to quit. Everyone knows Thomas Edison right? The guy who invented the light bulb? Yeah, well, before his revolutionary invention, Edison went through 10,000 failed attempts. 10,000. Can you imagine that??! The amount of perseverance and dedication is astounding and so is the fact that, despite the failures, he knew that he was on to something special enough to keep going. He even famously said
'I have not failed 10,000 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.' which is a great perspective to have on failure.
Then there is JK Rowling who received 12 rejection letters for Harry Potter and The Philosophers Stone and, when it was finally picked up by a publisher, was told not to quit her day job. But now, Harry Potter is the biggest franchise in the world. While they are great, these success stories all stem from the same place - a beginning. A start. A decision to stop the deliberating, the
umms and
ahhs, the
I'm not sure's, the
what ifs and
just start. A start somewhere, even if it's on the wrong path, will eventually lead you on to the right trail. You don't have to already be naturally talented but you do need to have an abundance of ambition and drive to keep going and moving forward, even during times of confusion and failed attempts.
This blog post was definitely a reminder to myself as much as it was to help you reading this. I think writing posts like this is a way to make sure that I practice what I preach, so, with that in mind, here are some personal goals that I have been putting off for a very long time and vow to start on:
- Learn Spanish
- Travel to at least three (or more) different countries
- Learn to swim
- Start writing my book
- Meet Will Smith (well, a girl can dream)
What are some things you have been putting off doing? As of today, make a pledge to yourself to stop wanting and start doing!
Currently, I am loving:
(I know. I'll shut up about him now)
