All of us start off as bright, innocent kids. Endlessly curious about the world around them. Good singers, artists, communicators. Expressive. Filled with life.
Somehow, as we become socialized into adults, we lose that spark.
Some of us become perfectionists. We constantly evaluate, judge, and criticize everything we do. There’s a constant self-anxiety and shame. It becomes hard to concentrate. Feeling bad, our minds are endlessly anxious and loose rather than focused and relaxed.
I’ve been working on rekindling the bright, creative, and action oriented mode of children and the stupid.
Part of that has been learning how to sew. I spent at least thirty minutes watching videos and practicing how to thread a needle and tie a knot. I practiced on a napkin and paper. I fixed a few broken cushions. It wasn’t a great job, looked pretty terrible, and one of them broke again. But it worked and most of all I’m learning and having fun while doing so.
Today, I went to the hardware store and bought 4 caster wheels and a board. I wanted to make a cart so it’s easier to move large bulky items like beds around the building. Rather than perfect the drilling holes and get the perfect piece of wood, I just went for it. By the end, I realized I made a great and dangerous skateboard and zoomed around the room before finally falling on my ass.
I also bought a shelf and two brackets. Again, I did some minimum measurements and leveled it a bit. But mostly I just went for it and now have a wall shelf.
For perfectionist and intellectual folks like me, the temptations is always to keep planning and doing everything but the actual actions which involve making mistakes. I want to close that loop between learning, trying, feedback, and learn again.
And have a whole lot of fun in the process.