This is Scary. Do it Anyway.
This is a note to me, but maybe it will help you, too.
Doing anything for the first time is scary. There’s a fear present in everything new. The urge to jump from a high place thrills and terrifies us. The first day at a new school or a new job is both exciting and daunting.
This is my first article. When I finish writing it, I’m going to hit publish. This means other people are going to read it. That’s terrifying. Other people, in their black robes and white wigs, will sit here and highlight every flaw in my writing. They’ll leave cruel comments and bring their gavel down on my dreams until they shatter, and I inevitably retreat to this safe place of inaction and hiding in obscurity.
The worst things in my head snowball into massive issues. Someone I know will read this and they’ll privately laugh at me every time they meet me. There is something malicious in their smile when they greet me.
Someone I don’t know will read this and they’ll dox me. I’ll turn into a meme or a punchline.
My boss will read this and I’ll get fired. They always knew I was a fraud at work and now they have proof. I never belonged at a tech start-up in the first place.
My family will read this and say it’s bad. It’s too cringe, my boys will say. Why did you post that? Or worse, they’ll read it and not mention it. They don’t want to hurt my feelings.
These dark thoughts build like storm heads, illuminated from the inside by brief flashes of hateful rhetoric and half-forgotten quotes from trolls in comment sections of all the articles I’ve read before.
The reasons to stop writing pile up and kill any optimistic thought in my head until I just want to close the laptop and doomscroll on my phone.
Doing anything for the first time is scary but writing is especially daunting. This article is a look at the thoughts in my head, manifested into draft form and then published, naked truths exposed. Like a new patch of skin after a sunburn, this tender article will be exposed to the harsh glare of the internet critic. That infamous toxic reader will callously and casually condemn what he finds here, leaving a cruel one-liner, and then move on, uncaring of the impact of his words.
I can hear the jeering crowds now. Leave it to the experts, leave it to the talented. Give up, quit, the world doesn’t need more writers.
Who are you to change this world? Silly boy. No one needs to hear your words. Let it go.
Here, critic, I’ve written your comment for you. Just copy-pasta:
This article is full of cliches and sub-par writing. This uncreative writer has delivered an unintelligible tangle of words that will make you want to stop reading after the first paragraph and will make you feel dumber for having read it if you finish it. Dear writer, you should have listened to your inner critic and stopped before you hit publish. An hero yourself. -The internet Critic
Now that the worst has already happened, what else can go wrong? I’m sure I’ll regret asking. I’m sure I’ll find out.
If this is so frightening, then why do it? Why should we endure the pain and torment of new experiences?
Because this is the way of the world. We must take risks to receive rewards. Babes would never walk if they could understand the pain of falling. Kids would never run if all they ever thought about was falling. The mountain would remain unconquered if the only thing considered was the chance of failure.
Imagine the dark world if Edison had stopped after his first failure.
Imagine a world without flight. The Wright brothers never flew at Kitty Hawk and everyone still laughs at the thought of man flying.
Insert another cliche about never giving up.
Maybe we should do it because it frightens us. Maybe fear is a primer for success. Maybe fear illuminates opportunities for growth. Maybe some fear is a rallying cry.
I’m not suggesting all fear is a call to action. Some fear is healthy and holds us back from things that will end our lives or severely injure us. But some fear in the face of new experiences is normal and should be overcome and done anyway.
But it’s not perfect. I don’t have the cool graphics or interesting photos to go with it.
Publish it anyway. And remember a few more pieces of advice to help you overcome your perfectionism.
Failure is just feedback. As long as you get up and try again, there is no shame in falling. As long as you learned from your experience and improved, this was not a wasted effort. There are myriad quotes on the internet involving failure and success to the point that they feel cliche.
Quantity creates quality. The more you write and publish, the more practiced you will be and the better your writing gets. Eventually, you will write something worth reading.
Progress, not perfection. Getting 85% of the way to the goal is better than never starting. If you dream of being a writer, then write! If you dream of being a famous content creator, then you must create content! You have to start to succeed.
Just do it. Take your biggest dream and break it down into parts. Ask yourself what would a successful person do and then just do it. Writers write. Actors act. Singers sing. Hone your craft and keep at it until you have 10,000 hours of practice in it, and then keep doing it. Don’t think about it. Don’t listen to the arguments why you shouldn’t do it. Just do it. Sure, it’s a slogan for a shoe company, and it’s a viral internet meme by Shia LaBeouf, but there’s a reason it’s so prevalent. It’s the secret sauce to success.
So I’m going to publish this article because it terrifies me. And then I’m going to keep publishing articles. Then I’m going to publish a book. And more articles and books.
What are you going to do that terrifies you?
