Battling Your Limitations
March 9, 2009
First, I'd like to thank everybody. After about 24 hours of drenching rain the sky opened up with cold temps and clear blue sky for the funeral today, which was very nice. The walk to the burial site was a bit squishy, but otherwise fine. It was a lovely service.
Now, onto a writing topic.
I've got this writing/publishing project I really want to try. It has the potential to be very, very big and I'm scared and I keep trying to come up with reasons why I shouldn't just go ahead and jump in.
I think this happens to people all the time. Sometimes I write pros and cons lists. Sometimes I just...
Oh screw it.
What do you do? How do you battle the little voice in your head that says, "You might fail. It might be a debacle. Don't do it?"
You tell me.
Cheers,
Mark Terry
posted by Mark Terry at 12:56 PM
9 Comments:
Is this a paying job that might fail? Or a concept that might fail?
Big difference ...
heck I don'tworry about failing -- goodness, I have been through enough debacles
I picture myself at 70 slapping my forehead and saying "why the heck didnt I at least TRY that!!""
not as if failing is going to kill anyone, right?
now, what scares me more is SUCCESS -- if this project is SUCCESFUL I might have to do it AGAIN!!!!
so any advice on that???
CJ
sorry google not recognsiing my id so posting an anonymous
I growl at myself. A lot.
And then I try to convince myself I can't wait to escape to my story world.
And then I growl at myself.
Jon,
It's a variation on the project you and I discussed.
Mark:
I actually think it's symbolic that you attended a funeral. My feeling is always that it's a short ride around the block of life and NOT doing things is far riskier than trying and failing. NOT doing things leads to regrets for might-have-beens.
E
I say go for it ... I usually try to combat the nattering nabob of negativity with information. I'll research everything I can get my hands on, draw up a detailed plan of action, and by that time, the mountain usually doesn't seem so scary.
Good luck.
Erica,
Yes, you're probably right. A friend of mine I hadn't talked to in years was at the funeral and we drove to the cemetery together. His Mom died in a pretty unpleasant way (I'm not sure there ARE pleasant ways) about two years ago and we were discussing what my wife describes this way: "Life is short so party now."
As he put it, he wasn't going to put off doing things until later. "We'll retire in a double-wide and look at our scrapbook of our trip to Europe instead of putting off the trip to Europe until later."
Jon,
I think so. I'm breaking down all the steps and by dealing with them one at a time they may seem more manageable. I just try not to let all the research become the end in itself.
I ask myself if I'll regret not having done it when I'm 90.
Sometimes the regret of not trying something is far worse than failure. Most of us regret things we didn't do more often than things we did do.
So bite the bullet and do it. If you're this scared, chances are good it's something you really really want. And 90 gets closer every day.
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