Permission To Mess Up
Permission to Mess Up
By
Crystal Lewis
The pressure to be perfect or at least appear to be extremely qualified at something can be suffocating. As humans, we never want to seem diminished, not in control or appear inept. We struggle with this ever-looming fear that other people will secretly take pleasure in our failures and judge and laugh at our mistakes, or worse, find us out to be a fraud, giving affirmation to those negative thoughts and judgements we secretly already have about our own selves. We reason that if somehow someone else shares the same opinion that we do it suddenly makes it true. For instance, if there is something you think you are terrible at and someone else agrees with you, then suddenly you feel there is now some validity to your lack of talent in that area, and perhaps you are lacking, but perhaps it is also just one person’s opinion. Regardless, it takes the wind out of our sails when thinking of attempting something new or even just continuing down the current path.
However, if you do lack talent and skill in an area that you are trying to improve in, there is absolutely no shame in admitting it and allowing yourself the space to mess up and figure things out as you go along, growing as you gain in knowledge. I pity the person whom is so draped in pride they refuse themselves the ability to be truly vulnerable and admit honestly that they have no idea what they are doing, but intend to push forward anyway using their ignorance as the baseline for their learning curve.
Refusing to admit where we may be lacking in skill taking on the “fake it until you make it” philosophy is its own kind of exhausting hustle. So, what if instead of continuing the exhausting hustle to save face, we each gave ourselves the permission to mess up? I don’t mean this to sound trite or reckless, but in simply taking the pressure off yourself to be perfect at something, what would you consider trying or doing or perhaps changing? How would it affect the way you see and feel about yourself and others? If you could eliminate your fear of failure and looking foolish in front of others, what sort of risk might you take today?