THE AVOIDANCE DECEPTION

July 5th, 2019

A sense or vision of ideal perfection is often broadcasted as the grand and noble reason why we delay and cease to make those beginning moves.

It’s got to be just right. . .

Anyone who honestly scrutinizes the ideal vision of their goal will see that it’s mostly just a hazy feeling of certainty and desire peppered with a few details.  No one dreams in fully formed  and complete ideas.  We follow notions and discover and iterate the details as we go, following that sense of aesthetic.

For many this is a hard process to get going with, especially if the topic or issue or design feels cripplingly important.

The self-defeating solution is to avoid failure and simply never start.

But this is again a linguistic illusion.  Failure is a negative word and in the emotional logic of language it makes perfect sense to avoid something negative, as one would avoid placing a hand on a hot stove.

the linguistic illusion is in the use of the word failure. 

It’s not failure people are avoiding.

People are avoiding growth.

Simply compare these two synonymous statements:

I’m avoiding failure.

and

I’m avoiding growth.

They essentially mean the same thing but they carry wildly different emotional weights. 

Avoiding failure feels forgivable.

Avoiding growth though…

that seems irresponsible.