Nothing To Look Back On.

Why would we start something in front of so many other people (and ourselves), just to look back and see how embarrassing our attempts were?

The bad part about learning something new is that we can't be great at it right away. The great part about learning something new is that we can't be great at it right away.

In these moments it is important for us to remember why we do the things that we do, and to logically question where those feelings of apprehension to start are coming from.

Think about something you've been good at since childhood - maybe a sport, art, or math. When you were little, it was easier to start because you hadn't yet built up the embarrassment of trying something new and not being good at it.

Many people worry that they will look back and feel unsettled about how bad they were at the thing. But if you were never bad, and you did not have to struggle to get good in your own way - you'd just want to accomplish something else anyway, so you could actually work for fulfillment and achieve something.

So it was only because you did the thing that you have something to look back on. In hindsight, you'll often realize now it wasn't so bad, because you are a different person now for having gone through it.

And if you're worried someone else is going to shame you for trying - most often you shouldn't even be concerned about why that person's opinion matters, especially when they aren't where you want to be.

So really you shouldn't be afraid of having to look back and cringe - the real fear is in not being able to look back on anything at all, and having no stories to tell.