Fail up and Blog

These are shower thoughts I’ve compiled on reasons I don’t blog:

• Overwhelming and paralyzing desire to impress you with my totally original and unique thoughts.
• Fear that I do not have original or unique thoughts.
• Too many subjects. Too little time to write.
• Too many thoughts but can’t focus long enough to write more than 140 characters  (or Why I Tweet but not Blog).
• Don’t want to be judged.
• I get annoyed when people disagree with me.
• If I never write, I’ll never fail.

I have paralyzed myself over-thinking writing about my thoughts.

James Altucher’s 33 Unusual Tips to Being a Better Writer kicked me in the butt. His writing is entertaining, simple, insightful and shocking in a fun way, like that cold plunge after soaking at a Russian sauna. His advice has demystified a subject I’ve built up over so many years.  One point especially slayed me with his simplicity -

Don’t be afraid of what people think

13+ years of public education never supported those statements.

I wasn’t taught to fail. My body, thought processes, notions of time and reflexes have been to prevent failure. I am an expert at picking apart all ways others have failed. The idea that one day I’d be doing the same never hit home. Sometimes I do the wrong thing. Sometimes I lose. Sometimes I didn’t try as hard as I could, and I lose. Sometimes I put in  everything I have, and I still lose.

At 32, I have a new mantra. I will lose. I will make mistakes. I will have shitty periods of time that are completely outside of my control. People I love will make mistakes, usually completely unrelated to me, or not. I will work with people I don’t understand, that I really dislike, and they will fail, just like me. All of these things will happen, and there is nothing I can do about it.

Having failed in a few areas over the last couple years, I’m now back on my feet and ready to fail at something new. As the Japanese Proverb goes, Fall seven times, stand up eight. I’m ready to fail at blogging!