Start with Failure

The fool will go to great lengths to not appear as one. The wise man will not hesitate to appear a fool so long as he is not one.

“I don’t write because my pen seems unable to mirror the paths of my mind.”

“I don’t sing because my voice does not float upon a breeze like the bird’s song.”

“I don’t study, for I am no scholar, and my mind is unable to retain the wealth of libraries.”

“I don’t contemplate, for I am no philosopher able to shake the foundations of society with words alone.”

How often have we heard lines akin to these?

Perhaps we have even uttered similar words ourselves on occasion.

We dare not venture beyond the breadth of our knowledge, the limit of our skills, and the horizon of our experience.

For, our egos tell us we must avoid failure.

Our pride cannot allow us to look like fools.

And so, we confine ourselves to doing only that which we have proven ourselves capable of.

We limit ourselves to thinking only in ways we have always thought.

In doing so, we are fools going to great lengths to not appear as such.

When we care more about how others perceive us than our own growth, the limits of our abilities become the prison walls of our lives.

Growth requires failure.

If I converse with a man who is wiser than me, I will appear unwise while growing in knowledge.

If I wrestle with a man who overpowers me, I will appear weak while gaining strength.

If I play the guitar for the first time, I will appear unskilled while becoming more adept.

By engaging in new, valuable activities and thought processes, we may appear to be fools, yet we are anything but.

Epictetus writes, ‘If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.’

There is no path to improvement in life and faith other than starting where you are and embracing this fact: the bold may look foolish at first, but true fools never even begin.

'Shreddn the Sludge' - there's never not enough snow.