Do Not Be Afraid To Try Out Anything
Don’t hate me for starting this article like this, but my favorite brand tagline is from Nike, “Just Do It.” Not only because it’s catchy, but it’s also very powerful. Nike’s tagline shows us the power of action. And it can be applied not only to sports, but in our lives as well.
Most of the time when we want to do something, fears and inhibitions hold us back. We want to know first whether we’ll succeed or not, whether a venture will produce good results, or an investment can lead to a fortune. We want to know if we’re ready or prepared.
Our modern-day minds tell us, that all the things we do should lead to some form of success. That it must contribute to our lives, and logically uplift us. Well that is true and correct, and I will not oppose it.
But right now, I want to speak to those who haven’t found their success yet, who have no idea where to go or where to start, and who isn’t in the journey yet.
Do not be afraid to try out anything, if you think it will help you know yourself more.
One major blocker of self-discovery and success is the fear of trying something out, the worry that you will regret doing something, and the dreading feeling that you might just waste your precious time away (especially if you fail).
What if it’s not for me? What if I don’t like it? What if I fail?
The reality is that you can never regret something you’ve done because no matter what it is, it will surely teach you a lesson, but you will always regret something you haven’t done, because it will remain a mystery to you.
Always remember that time that you spent learning is more precious than time you spent not doing anything.
Taking my life as an example, a year ago, I started livestreaming in Facebook. It is something that I just want to try, and it is something that I don’t know if will, in any way, contribute to my success. I just started it, because I am curious and I want to know how it feels to bring people together on a social media platform. I want to know if it could help me become better in terms of communicating with others.
I did feel that it might not bring me the success I want because it’s not in my area of expertise, but I know it will surely help me on my process to self-discovery. That is why, like Nike said, I just did it.
In that one year, I am able to amass 4500 followers, and made about 192 livestreams. It was a small number, I know, but it was something that I never thought I could do. I never thought that I could face strangers, and that I could talk to lots of people, without seeing their faces. I never thought that I could produce content and edit, held tournaments, create teams and participate in events myself. And now I feel like I want to try to do some podcasts and youtube contents for my writings.
These are things that I didn’t know about myself, and things I never thought could actually make me happy.
But here I am now, talking about it and being thankful for it because I just tried and enjoyed it. That is something, which is out of my comfort zone, and I did it.
Now did it make me successful? Did it somehow help on my networth?
Definitely no, (not yet) but what I am sure of is that it taught me a lesson about myself, and it contributed something to my life. Because I knew things I didn’t know before, and discovered talents I didn’t know I have.
Today in our lives we are so afraid that our time is up, that life will roll and the world will leave us behind. That’s why we want to be perfect in everything we do, and put high standards to things that we think we should be doing.
We want to be like those influencers we see on Instagram, who know the path ahead to success, and who are very sure of themselves. We only want to take a step if it would bring us closer to our dreams, if it will somehow support the beautiful life we want to project to the world.
But before focusing on those steps, on those social-image, before thinking whether something is right and be smart about it, perhaps it is only appropriate that we realize first what the dream is.
Firstly, we must know who we are.
What do we like doing? What brings us joy? What are our hidden talents? Who are we, deeply?
We can never know, not unless we do try out. Not unless we jump on to the water, and start to thread like crazy. Because in order to live and to survive, and to be free in this world, we must first trust our personal instinct.
Discover ourselves more. If it helps, just try out anything.
