So, I’m participating in a life coaching program called Creative Alchemy Passion Plan by Kathy Kawalec, who is, oddly enough, a dog trainer. She participates in open level sheepdog trials with her border collies.
Today, one of the members of the group posted a quote attributed to Neil Gaiman. I found his original post here.
The part of this post that my fellow creative alchemy student mentioned is this:
“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.
So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.
Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.
Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”
This works in so perfectly with my current daily devotional subject of fear. The specific devotional is a 14 day plan on Bible.com called Fear is a lie. In today’s reading the writer argues that fear is a learned response in some cases, therefore can be unlearned. The writer says the first step in unlearning fear is to identify individual fears.
Failure, you could say mistakes, topped my list. But Mr. Gaiman’s reading gives another way to think of failure. As, well, not failure. But a mistake. A learning tool. Something useful. Another way to approach the task at hand. Or not approach it. Maybe the mistake will lead to a wonderful discovery.
My favorite line in Mr. Gaiman’s quote above is this: “Whatever it is you’re scare of doing, Do it.”
Does fear inhibit you in pursuit of your dreams? What techniques do you use to just do it afraid? How do you break the hold when you feel fear has you in its grip?
Colletts on the Move 