Perfectionism is far more common than you’d think.
I believe more people have a strong idea of what they’d like to do with their lives but you won’t find a majority of people doing it.
Circumstances are circumstances. People are definitely afraid of branching out, they have dependents, they have financial ties, they have emotional ties.
I wonder that the most frequent question in the world is secretly, “what will they think?”, with perhaps the second most common, “am I allowed to do this?”
Who are we asking permission from? It’s a serious question. Adults feel like children and act in accordance with this, convincing themselves that their dreams and ambitions are ridiculous and unrealistic.
Maybe the latter is so for most. Maybe it is unrealistic but does it mean it’s impossible?
Are you following the pack?
Are you believing the same self-limiting thoughts?
What if you just got started, no matter how stupid or inexperienced you felt?
I was recently chatting with a sweet chap who said he was a novelist. I asked him what stage of his endeavour he was at. Planning stage, plot lines, thinking about characterisation but no novel written and, in fact, he was talking about two different projects. The timing wasn’t right, he couldn’t devote his energies to it.
I remind myself that I have actually already written two books and I’m on my third. I will admit that I haven’t done anything with the original two.
Set the ball in motion.
Start sharing what you’ve done.
Write the first line, the first paragraph.
Don’t be one of the people confined to the wasteland of history.