Words that matter

This is my first ever blog. But I’ve been telling myself that I’ll write a blog since almost 5 years now. I mean, I wanted to write. I intended to write. But I just didn’t.. write.

Procrastination? Nah. I wasn’t shying away from the idea. I was, in fact, so in love with the idea that my perfectionist-self didn’t even want to begin. I was living with an all-or-nothing mentality.

I only picked up things that I knew I could do well. And that, left very less scope for growth. Because hey, if you can’t do something well, why even bother picking it up? Same reason why I didn’t have worthy-enough hobbies to show when kids around me did.

I remember catching a whim to run. I really, really wanted to run. But I didn’t prepare my body for it and came back with horrible cramps after the first day.

So that’s when I learnt my first lesson — setting a goal that’s fairly achievable. Specially if I’m trying something out for the first time. Not too high, not too low. Just enough. So that I don’t end up doubting my capabilities instead. The second lesson was me realising that maybe I didn’t want to run. Maybe I only thought I wanted to run because that seemed like a cool thing to do. And yes, before you tell me don’t let the internet rush you — it does. It’s a fact that’s hard to digest but a lot of things that we do today are somehow inspired by seeing someone else do it. Probably on the internet.

Fortunately, 2020 was a complete hairpin bend moment and I’ve challenged myself to venture into newer areas since. I’ve picked up tasks I had absolutely no clue about, and managed to do them well.

In school, I used to recite a phrase every day after our morning prayer. I mean what I say and I say what I mean. It isn’t uncommon for us to notice that we say a lot of things, and then end up doing only a bunch of them. Maybe we feel we can’t really do it. And maybe we feel that way because we’ve tried doing something and failed at it — miserably.

So why bother picking up things that you can’t do well? The answer is something I can say today — to learn.

Or even, just to enjoy the process.

So hey, if you’re still reading, thank you for not letting me fail at my first attempt. Hopefully this translates into more such attempts.

Love,
P