Maybe you know the feeling: you want to achieve something, and you desperately need this one thing to get there. You need a really good camera to launch your YouTube channel. You need decent video editing software. Then you need some plugins, a microphone, and more. And then you need a lot of time to research all of it, because you only want to buy the best.
Once you’ve spent a heap of money, you obviously need to learn how to use it all first. Long story short: you never produce anything. Because the result is never good enough. You spend a lot of time with your new toys, but you also waste a lot of your life.
It’s a strange thing. Deep down, we know it’s just an excuse. Once I have the right tools and can use them perfectly, then it’ll be a success. Maybe we’re kidding ourselves. Maybe we’re afraid of success. And that’s why we keep piling things in front of it.
It’s the fear of failure that stops us from ever starting. But what are we actually afraid of? That others will laugh at us, or that we’ll feel like losers? I don’t think it’s worth it. Because in the end, everyone’s only looking at themselves. Nobody probably even notices that you’re trying something and it’s not perfect yet. And anyway, what does “perfect” even mean?
We take ourselves too seriously, too heavily. What advice would you give a friend? Just give it a go. You’d probably say, “You can sort out the rest later. And once you’re better at it, just do it again.” Why don’t you give yourself the same advice? OK. You don’t have an expensive camera, just a smartphone. Do you have something to say? Or is it just vanity pushing you into the spotlight? If that’s not it — if you genuinely have something to say — then share it with the world. Maybe more importantly: give yourself permission to share it. We want to read it and hear it.
Sometimes you have to let go. And in this case, we’re not just letting go of the fear of failure. Because what’s hiding behind the fear? When you peel back that feeling and really look at it, you’ll notice the fear is just standing in for something else. And once you’ve understood that, you can simply let it go — because fear has no power when you just start, keep going, and stop quitting every time you think you can’t measure up to other people’s standards. So go on, what are you waiting for?
Originally published auf Deutsch at reinergaertner.de (est. 1997, older than Google). AI helped translate this. I helped introduce the errors.