we live in a world nearly void of trying.
we live in a world of plenty. plenty of toothpaste, plenty of tutorials, plenty of problems. we can drop ship a new fuzzy pillow, pair of sandals, or get instant access to tutorials on how to start a business just with the click of a button.
if you make anything, you can start an Etsy store. if you want to learn spanish, you buy a three-week program. if you want to lose that muffin top, you look up five-day meal plans and workouts to quickly lose five pounds.
because of this, we live in a world where we have nearly lost the ability to try.
. . .
the ability to fail.
for my typography college class, my professor was coaching us in calligraphy. we were about three days in and most of our work still looked like absolute junk (seriously: kindergartners were better).
but my professor shook his head and just laughed whilst turning on some monk chants to get us in the zone.
“guys, people dedicated years of their life to learning how to do this. monks wrote Bibles in calligraphy like this. you can’t expect to learn something like this in just three days. by the end of this tutorial, you still won’t be a pro.”
and that’s when it really hit me: how, when things come hard and we “fail,” we’re so quick to give up or complain.
i expect to sell every item in my etsy shop. i expect to speak spanish fluently after two semesters.
after five years of soccer, I wanted to be a starter on a college team.
but these things can’t be bought for $19.99 on amazon and two-day-shipped to our front porch.
good
things
in
life
take
time
(and failure)
so yeah. you might fall off that skateboard a few times. you might make a “fatal” error when you’re trying to get directions in France as a tourist.
it might take you months to get your first etsy sale, to finally letter something that you don’t feel a need to burn, to learn how to get the core shadow right on that still life.
BUT THAT’S OKAY. Good things take time, as they always say.
also, don’t be afraid to learn. because we CAN just hop on our phone and look up the nearest self-defense lessons, most of the time we simply DON’T. maybe other things are grabbing for our attention instead, maybe we just take it for granted.
here’s to a life of learning. a life of failing. a life of embracing the try. the Bible says that the more we reap, the more we sow.
so let’s not plant half an old apple seed and get upset when nothing comes from it. let’s make an informed decision, get a whole pack of seeds, and start a whole apple orchard.
let’s try harder. let’s learn harder.
let’s fail harder.
