Make a Well-Intentioned Mistake Today!

I think most of us need to loosen up. We suffer from experience constipation. 

We want things to be right before we do them, good before we express them, appropriate before we put them out. So we don't do things, we don't express things, we don't put things out for the world (and ourselves) to see. 

It's why people don't plan on the front end—what if I have bad ideas and it doesn't work? (What if I don't have any ideas at all!!??) It's why we don't set goals—what if they're not the right ones? What if I put myself off track? It's why we won't write poetry–what if it stinks? It's why we let agendas fester with other people and ourselves—what if I say what I really feel like saying? (I couldn't handle what they might feel or do...) 

And yet the best way to have a good idea is to have as many bad ones as you can. The best way to write good poetry is to write a whole lot of stuff, and find the diamonds in the rough. The best way to set goals is to set 45 of them and see which ones stick around that are really the most interesting to us. And the best way to keep loving people we love is to keep the air clear with honest feedback. 

We've all known enough people who did seem to have a freedom to bluster into life in an awkward and out-of-control fashion with bully egos, creating pain and discomfort for lots of others. They were hard to forgive because they didn't express it with an underlying sense of humor/humility and they weren't constantly course-correcting and refining after they put it out (too much ego investment).

That shouldn't deter us. There is a place of balance between free expression and sensitive and smart recalibration. We have to be willing to create our own raw data to work with, our own clay to mold. 

Risk a well-intentioned mistake today. Trust me, it works (I keep telling myself...)!