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A Word to the Wise on Wednesday

Today, I read an interview about "Creating Art, Feeling Weak and Getting Over It."

Timely, to say the least.

I particularly liked this quote:

Honestly, your trials and tribulations are just stories to other people. They like hearing those stories and they’re rooting for you. For the most part, to win, and they like hearing even when you don’t win because it’s part of the story. So what I try to do more now, is share when I am in trouble because it’s interesting to people. I’m one of those people that tends to put their head down and just does it. So I’ve tried to stop and say, “Here’s my problem.” Surprisingly, people will say, “Let me help you with that.”

I could have been more open about what was going on when it was really personally scary...but I always thought that people would see me as weak if I opened up. But really what they’re seeing is “Wow. This man is taking a risk. That’s cool. I wish I had the guts to do that.” Failure has entertainment value. Not all stories end happily and in the middle there’s supposed to be challenge and distress.
And then my friend Laura sent me this article, "How to be awesome at everything."

The secret to being awesome at everything is having the courage to be horrible at first.

That’s it. If you want to be awesome at something, you just need to be brave enough to be horrible at it first.The fear of being horrible is actually what keeps most people from ever being awesome at everything.

This is exactly what I need to hear. I hate being horrible at things and I hate failing and I hate the possibility that I might let people down. But I need to be willing to let those things happen.

Ugh. More thoughts/questions to possibly come.

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