For my 600th blog post (whoa.) I would like to share with you an excerpt from a text that has hit close to home with me, as I continuously struggle with the questions of:
- What the hell am I doing with my life?
- Where am I going to live next year?
- Why do I bother trying to be a writer/creator/sock creature maker/lino-printer etc when I am clearly lacking any real skill/talent/ability etc?
I found this excerpt in an article by Oliver Burkeman on the School of Life website and it just makes me feel so much better about EVERYTHING. I suspect it will ring true for a few other people as well.
The bookshelves heave with advice on how to feel confident in social settings, or motivated to take exercise, how to get inspired for creative projects, etcetera. But what if you just accepted that you felt afraid, or unmotivated, or uninspired, and went fearfully, unmotivatedly, uninspiredly onward?
‘Give up on yourself,’ wrote the late Japanese psychologist Shoma Morita, whose deadpan approach provides a refreshing respite from the legions of grinning positive thinkers. ‘Begin taking action now, while being neurotic or imperfect or a procrastinator or unhealthy or lazy or any other label by which you inaccurately describe yourself. Go ahead and be the best imperfect person you can be, and get started on those things you want to accomplish before you die.’
Sounds like a good plan to me.