In a world that paints perfection as the only way to go about life, one needs to cut themselves the slack and fluently do every desirable thing so badly that in the long run they become perfection itself and absolutely exigent! I know, I know, sounds ironic, right? but it actually isn’t. On the contrary, doing things badly is the best way to achieve those life goals you desire badly yet cringe so bad when you envision the hard work and skills it takes to actually ‘get’ them.
The prominent G. K Chesterton once said that ‘anything worth doing is worth doing badly’ but if you are anything like me, sucking at anything especially if you have audience is the least favorable experience, no? Other individuals however live by the notion that ‘anything worth doing is worth doing well’. I totally respect that but this is me deciding to literally go against their norms and let my pregnant fingers give birth so badly and together with you my lovely audience raise this baby blog so perfectly, shall we?
The Art of Doing things Badly is Rewarding
Now let’s be realistic, how many times have the fear of being bad at something derailed you so far? I’m guessing plenty. On the other hand, what are the rewards taking that risk has given you up to this far? Maybe plenty, none, or just a few, but it’s okay, ain’t no shame in your game. The society have cultured us to belief that anything worth doing must be done with utter perfection or nothing at all and one way or another we have all fallen puppets to that.
Personally I have procrastinated starting many essential things ranging from loving myself unconditionally, practicing healthy routines and self care, starting many dream businesses, including this blog due to one failure that totally embarrassed me and even my entire family years ago (story for another blog). The failure came after a me getting used to win after win and oh boy, it got me real bad.
Often, my intuition tells me i got this and the other moment that fear of failure comes crawling from the back of my mind with a pocket full of the what ifs and what if nots. I’m still healing and from time to time I do my best to hold myself back but I know that by touching a soul I get more healing.
The Sheer Truth, the Only Way to Perfect is Through Bad
To be honest though, we owe ourselves a huge apology, reckless grace, and absolute grant to do things badly and give failure a brand new definition. How about we fail forward,? because, is it even worth being labelled as failure if you evolve, grow, learn, and bounce back stronger from it? From where I see it, it’s not failure if I show up, it’s not failure if if I make the effort, and more importantly, it’s nothing close to failure until I’ve entirely thrown the towel in. So hey there confetti, fail all you can, suck until you can’t no more because effort begets effort and eventually your moments will add up.
The Stumbling Blocks to Doing it Badly Anyway
Fear of Failure and Judgement
Yea, yea, I too can hear that creep at the back of your mind yelling ‘utaambia nini watu’ and i tell you what, ‘hutahave kuwaambia any, the results will speak for itself na haiwahusu hata hivo’. Each one of us have told themselves various narratives on failure with or without realizing. To some failure feels like the end of the universe and to some it seems like the death but guess what, not doing anything at all is more of giving yourself the green light to fail in advance. On top of that, the society will always have their opinion on you and your life whether your fail or you win, but what’s yours?
Self-doubt
Many at times, the only person hindering you from going for it and attaining your goals is none other than yourself. We fail to realize and tap how great we are by choosing not to belief in our skills and abilities to be ‘good enough’. Additionally, we lack the ability to see that bad has the ability to be good and perfect. Self-doubt can plunge us into a bubble of feeling unready, waiting for the right time, and sadly depression and feeling not good enough no more.
Doing it Badly 101
Productive Mantras– Anything worth doing is worth doing badly. Doing something is way better than doing nothing. It is the progress that really matters, not the perfection. No one is going to hit you in the face if you did it neither will you die.
Broken Crayons Color Best!– As a kid, I’d quickly replace my broken crayons with a complete one because I had the notion that the broken one had long lost it’s worth only to come back to it once I’ve exhausted my stock. Turns out it’d paint just as well, maybe even better. Similar to being bad at something, bad is the chief ingredient of cooking perfection.
Do the Work Yourself!– From where you stand from as the CEO of your own life, you are the best person to tell what could be dragging you down. Go deeper and ask yourself what’s the worst that could happen if you took that shot, would you die, I bet no, well I hope not but how would we know if you didn’t try anyway?
Recognize and Celebrate the Small Efforts– Lies aside, we are human and a little token of appreciation goes a long way, always. How about you do this, set a challenge to do that thing you want and an enticing reward upon achieving every little step and weigh the difference it makes.
Go for Small Beginnings and Aim for Quick Wins– Starting small begins with adopting a new mindset and perception and the idea of failure because honestly, all life battles, big or small are won or lost in the mind. Also, it is important to note that small beginnings accompanied with sane and realistic or even better zero expectations. Like we said, ain’t no shame in your game!
Daily Reminder!– Doing nothing is the ultimate death sentence but those badly done small steps will get you off the hook for sure!
There’s no Growth in Doing the Things we are Perfect in over and over– Let’s put it this way, what if we all got discouraged by falling or comfortable with the first step as toddlers, would we ever grow to walk? definitely no. It is from the messy startups that the most legendary things have been achieved.
So queens and kings, what is that one thing that you’ve been dying to do but the fear of doing it badly has been hindering you from doing it? Is it adopting that new habit, starting that dream business, or even landing that million-dollar job you’ve been eyeing for a minute now. Join me @zaharahbettina94pregnantfingers doing things badly until perfection becomes our second name! And kindly share your ways of giving yourself the capacity to do things badly. Let’s go!
Pregnant Fingers! 