Work In Colour - Work. Think. Live. In Colour
Tuesday 13th September 2011 | 6 comments
A couple of weeks ago, I was awake at 3am. (This will not surprise regular readers...)
I did some worrying, then decided to find something to read on my Kindle. I came across Seth Godin's latest book, Poke The Box. (I don't remember buying it, but there it was).
He's a good writer and I like his ideas, so I read it. As it turned out, it was fascinating - and just what I needed to hear. It's summed up by this quote: 'Today, not starting is far, far worse than being wrong. If you start you've got a shot at evolving and adjusting to turn your wrong into a right. But if you don't start, you never get a chance.'
I later found out there's a free PDF Poke the Box workbook, which I recommend. You can get it here. It has good stuff in it, like: 'When you try something new or take a risk, you often feel uncomfortable, fearful, and insecure about making mistakes. That is natural, but it's not natural to stop here. Most times we stop here. But if we continue, there's a (high) chance that we'll overcome our fear and get to a place of confidence, knowledge and a faith in our abilities. And there is nothing wrong with making a few mistakes - or many. In fact, that's how we learn what not to do.'
Yay to that.
This all tied in perfectly with a blogpost I had read a few weeks ago, and which I kept returning to in my mind. It was the really excellent Jonathan Fields, talking about how the only way to make a good guitar is to let yourself make 5 bad guitars.
It's true. I am now going to actually put into action a whole heap of things that have been lying around for years, waiting til I had time to do them perfectly, or leaned some new skill, or could afford to produce them in the best quality materials, or whatever...I'm going to let myself make bad stuff.
And you, what are you going to start?
Perfect read this morning... exactly what I needed as I'm hitting a whole new learning curve that I hadn't anticipated. Just keep going a step at a time is what my head's been saying... funny thing is I don't trust my own thinking when my feelings are wobbly. So you blog was right message at right time (same as when you read the book in fact!).
Thank you Jo
Claire, glad it helped. There is such magic in the 'one step at a time' thing, isn't there? I love the simplicity of it, as well as the the sense of the possible - I can't do my whole project today, but I could do the next little step. So here's to baby steps!
Hi Joanna, Thanks for article. Spot on, I am in that space at the moment, no honestly been for awhile. Good to hear I am not alone in situation. Trying to find that something within myself, that fire to actually "do"
Thanks Veronica, go make some bad guitars...
Hi Joanna
I had a quick flick through the workbook and the question that jumped out at me was
"What is your favourite failure, and why?"
I love that question!
Michelle, isn't it a great question...I am going to use it with myself and with clients. Good stuff!