Last updated on November 23rd, 2020 at 03:49 pm
As we get older, I think it becomes easier to accept that we can’t be good at everything.
In school, you often have your know-it-alls and the competitive need to know more than everyone else around you. Knowledge is power—this is true.
But you can’t know everything.
This may be part of the secret to happiness—while we should all have a good amount of knowledge on a good number of topics, some ignorance is bliss.
I’ve been taking a sewing class for a few Tuesdays now, and while I can follow instructions, I can also respect that there’s a degree of finesse that I just don’t have. And I accept this—I accept that my interests don’t fully lie in becoming an expert tailor—it was simply a skill I wanted to dabble in to see where it goes.
But we shouldn’t be afraid to try things. We also shouldn’t be afraid to quit things if we don’t like them.
Do anything long enough, and your view of it starts to change. After messing around with photography for the better part of a decade, I look at old photos and note the thing that I would have done differently.
I can see past relationships, situations and roles in my life and note changes I could’ve made to achieve better outcomes. I can see how my actions, thoughts and ideas could’ve differed.
But most of all, I can see that I haven’t failed if I’m not the best there is at anything I do. As long as I’m satisfied with the things that I do, then there should be no problem, right?
You learn by doing. Your brain is a powerful tool that lets you try new things, learn new information and experience life as it should be experienced. Let it do its work in helping you to experience life has to offer, because spending all that energy trying to be the best at everything is a waste. But spending all that energy trying to experience everything to its best? Well…
…I think that’s the way we were meant to do it all along.
–Casey E. Palmer
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