Time flies…
It’s been almost 6 months since I last published on this blog. I’ve been postponing finishing any of my 20-something drafts, as I never could get my thoughts together into one clear conclusion worth (in my opinion) sharing.
It probably happened to you many times.
You probably have had those moments of inspiration where you suddenly started creating something; whether it was an article, poetry, painting or something else, but then you never shown results of your half-baked creativity to others. The next day inspiration faded away, the confidence gave way to the fear of being ridiculed and voilà.
You talked yourself out of showing the outcome of your thoughts to the world. You sticked with safe choices. Sharing current news, fashion, sport, scientific revelations, thoughts of people who have more guts than us to share their opinion. (the usual truth is: they do not give a sh*t on what others think of how they think).
We overthink things instead of just ‘going for it’. There is a room for error, especially in early stages. We must not be too critical with ourselves and launch projects way before they are perfect.
I’ve done those mistakes of not validating my projects early on. I tried too hard… I was trying to jump too far in my imagination, completely disconnecting with what can be achieved NOW.
In the end, it was like tilting at windmills, where you loose a lot of energy and get little or no results. Through my mistakes I’ve learned that even if your mind explodes with 1001 ideas per second, you need to stop, breathe and express thoughts one by one in the easiest way possible. Paul Graham argues that everything should be written and kept simple, as if you were talking to a good friend. No need to dressing simple ideas into fancy wording.
Conscious persistence
In one of her old articles, my colleague, Roxanne Varza said that the best way to become successful is to start “a project”. It doesn’t need to be a business, just something you can devote to. If you work on it, it will eventually define you and be your signature. Roxanne started with a simple blog where she shared her opinion about current technology. Soon after she got noticed and recruited into TechCrunch ranks. Then Microsoft followed. Now she is a CEO of the biggest startup incubator in the world Station F. Could she imagine where she will be in few years time, when she was starting her seemingly insignificant blog? If she did, she would probably become too overwhelmed of all of this.
She was just doing her best job and the world has noticed.
We must not be afraid of expressing ourselves, as there will always be someone who will find our work interesting and give our efforts a meaning and us – a power to do better. We need those early stages of imperfection. In the age of information flood, we need to be conscious and of what we do and what for (hello meditation).
So no matter how painful, don’t try to change who you are by fitting into commonly accepted model. Keep coming up with ideas that you cannot execute. Share them (so you can find someone who can help you). Ask for an opinion. If you are reading this and can refer to it, you have a real skill, it’s just a very unique skill. It’s called thinking. Most people can’t do that very well. Soon after you will realise how lucky you are. You will realise that you either think or work. Thinkers have more money and freedom than workers. So make a use of your skill instead of fading into neutrality.
As Charles Bukowski says, you were born into this:
“We are
Born like this
Into this
Into these carefully mad wars
Into the sight of broken factory windows of emptiness
Into bars where people no longer speak to each other
Into fist fights that end as shootings and knifings
Born into this
Into hospitals which are so expensive that it’s cheaper to die
Into lawyers who charge so much it’s cheaper to plead guilty
Into a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closed
Into a place where the masses elevate fools into rich heroes”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3ZcflP8KPY
Cover photo credit: Gorosart @DeviantArt