Procrastination. Something we all do. Laziness is a part of human nature; once we’re in a safe place, why move away from it? We may only have partially achieved our goals but we’re comfortable now, we’re safe and we just don’t feel like moving forward. The thing to say about this – there’s never a shortcut to learning. The predator in our minds, it likes us not moving, that way it can feed on our energy that stays where it is as we don’t invest it in our work. That’s when words like »Oh, it’s okay, I don’t really need this,« (but you do, that’s why you set your goals in the first place) or »Why keep trying,« come to mind. It happens, we all have bad days. Just don’t let this predator eat our energy for weeks or even months. Don’t wait another second to go along your path, there’s no reason to.

Find people who we find inspiring and collect from them what is meaningful to us. Not do exactly what they do, just learn. Find mentors, that’s one thing successful people usually advise. We may start by emulating our mentors or the people that inspire us, to get the behavoiour we want to master, but in time, we do grasp the right forms, our own moves as we go about our path. Same actions in different environments usually do not bring the same results (science would agree with this). The way we live solely depends on our way of thinking, our subjectiveness.

Perfectionism can either be positive or negative. The latter usually revolves around the fear that others will see us as inadequate while positive perfectionism brings better results, it seeks creativity and mastership. It puts pressure on the mind to carry out proceedings better, to write, speak, paint, eat, relax better, etc. Fear of failure is a slogan that inadequately describes what we’re actually afraid of. Each fear usually consists of three parts:

1. a remainder from the past (generally a source of shame);
2. lack of confidence in the present;
3. fear of substandard achievements or negative consequences in the future.

The most widespread fear in relation to creativity isn’t the fear of failure, but the fear of a test of courage. Thinking about it looks something like this: “If I fail, I can pick myself up and start over again, and what if I succeed, but only mediocre?” “How do I deal with all the time I’ve lost investing in realizing my plan?” When these questions arise even before we’ve started, make them go away as was mentioned earlier in previous pots. If they come up while we’re creating, maybe one of them has a point. Stop and think about it. If it’s fruitless, ignore it and continue, if it’s on point, change direction slightly, a baby step in some other direction and test it. Maybe it makes sence, if not, we can always return.

Leave deep traces where we can. Shape our ideas until they are youthful and ready to take on the world. Be brave and patient, don’t let fantasies take us too far away. Stand firm, insist, forgive as much as we can, forget some and create a lot.

There is great power in all this knowledge and it is very important to respect it. We have to be able to face it as it will become ours eventually. We don’t crawl before this power, nor do we strut or boast and we don’t run or hide from it. We present ourselves to it as we are.

You will find more about this topic in the book Women who run with the wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. The book is divided by chapters and in each of them there’s a story which teaches us a life lesson about what to do or how to react in certain situations. What would be bad for us, what would probably be better. The book celebrates the wild woman. Because let’s face it, we are human, but we differ, men and women. It would be very dull if we all thought and acted alike. Instead of making this all about differences, we should take it to our advantage. Together we can make this world and the lives in it much more interesting and colorful by not standing against eachother but walking along one another.

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