Chapter 272 - How Can You Better Embarrass Yourself?[5]

Before you are able to be good at something and do something important, you must first suck at something and have no clue what you're doing. That's pretty obvious. And in order to suck at something and have no clue what you're doing, you must embarrass yourself in some shape or form, often repeatedly. And most people try to avoid embarrassing themselves, namely because it sucks.

Ergo, due to the transitive property of awesomeness, if you avoid anything that could potentially embarrass you, then you will never end up doing something that feels important.

Yes, it seems that once again, it all comes back to vulnerability.

Right now, there's something you want to do, something you think about doing, something you fantasize about doing, yet you don't do it. You have your reasons, no doubt. And you repeat these reasons to yourself ad infinitum.

But what are those reasons? Because I can tell you right now that if those reasons are based on what others would think, then you're screwing yourself over big time.

If your reasons are something like, "I can't start a business because spending time with my kids is more important to me," or "Playing Starcraft all day would probably interfere with my music, and music is more important to me," then OK. Sounds good.

But if your reasons are, "My parents would hate it," or "My friends would make fun of me," or "If I failed, I'd look like an idiot," then chances are, you're actually avoiding something you truly care about because caring about that thing is what scares the shit out of you, not what mom thinks or what Timmy next door says.

Living a life avoiding embarrassment is akin to living a life with your head in the sand.

Great things are, by their very nature, unique and unconventional. Therefore, to achieve them, we must go against the herd mentality. And to do that is scary.

Embrace embarrassment. Feeling foolish is part of the path to achieving something important, something meaningful. The more a major life decision scares you, chances are the more you need to be doing it.