Sometimes it’s hard to engage in new experiences when you feel that you might not be able to do it perfectly or avoid making mistakes.
What if you said “yes” only to realize it’s not what you expected?
What if it doesn’t go as planned?
What if you find it overwhelming or challenging?
What if not doing it correctly leads to new kinds of judgment from others?
It’s only human to have these worries. It’s only human to ask “what if” when you’re faced with new unknowns. And at the same time, it is also only human to allow yourself room to breathe as you ease your way into new things. Allow yourself to acknowledge the courage it takes to move through something new: even if that something “new” is just a new day you’ve never experienced before.
For instance, when it comes to moving through a new day as a new experience all on its own, it’s easy to overlook the strength required to do the most simple things or the energy needed to navigate even the most subtle changes.
If you’ve made it through anything today, even if it’s just a series of regular breaths you took without thinking about it, no matter how small and whether anyone noticed or not, take this as a reminder of how you’ve been engaging with the new experience of a new day. Reflect on how, even when you weren’t thinking about it, you were breathing and moving through each hour. You were subtly but surely learning to be present in this new experience of a day, even without being able to make perfect sense of everything.
Carry this with you as you engage in new experiences that ask more of you. Remember the countless, everyday ways you’ve been moving through each new day with courage, even when you weren’t fully aware of it. Look for areas in your life where you try something new, knowing the courage to move through unknowns has already been rising up within you.
So here’s to moving beyond the need for perfection by reframing what it even means to “try.” Let this be a form of grounded hope, allowing onward and upward movement to arise gradually.
-Morgan Harper Nichols
