What I learned from giving it a go

Originally published on my website, 22 Mar 2022

By the middle of 2022 my first novel should be in people’s hands. This is equal parts appalling and exciting. It has launched me on a very new, very steep learning curve around promotions and marketing as I flounder and splash about in new spaces.

Up until March 2020, I had never used Facebook. Now I have a Facebook page, a website, a newsletter and a blog. In the past month, I have started to dabble in other creative spaces, such as my shabby Canva title reveal for the novel and the series title.

I will always have a million excuses not to share a thing. Nothing will ever be perfect (novel included). I spent the first decades of my life hammering out thousands of worlds and hundreds of pieces, polishing them and re-polishing them. I spun about very busily in a stagnant place, never pushing outside my comfort zone, never reaching for the next level.

My first impulse, as I sat down to create the “title reveal” post for Lust and Submission, is I can’t do this. I don’t have these skills. I don’t have the software. It’s going to look shabby and silly, I need to (insert various ridiculous excuses for procrastination).

It stayed stuck in this space for months.

There’s no point starting it, I decided, because it won’t work. I’m not ready yet.

It’s almost like we expect “ready” to drop out of the sky and bonk us on the head. Like we expect to trip over “ready” in the street as we scuff about our daily business.

If I can’t do something, I won’t try it, ’cause, well, it won’t be perfect will it?

The problem is, most things don’t happen unless we do them. In most cases, we will never know what is possible until we give things a red hot go. We also won’t improve if we don’t practice. Releasing something that isn’t perfect, but is as whole as we can make it, as quality as we can get it in this moment, takes a huge amount of courage.

So. How did I get my title reveal done?

I sat my ass down and I did it.

When it was done, when I had jabbed and poked at it with all the rudimentary skills I have in this raw learner state, in a cold clammy sweat I posted it.

Why?

Because we have to start somewhere. Starting involves us hitting that ‘post’ or ‘submit’ key. Starting requires actual doing.

Is it perfect? Hell no. Do I cringe when I see it? Yep. Am I plagued with an intense desire to take it the F down and do it again? Yesss.

We learn to crawl before we began to wobble upright. No one jumps on a bike and rides it flawlessly, first time. We all kangaroo-jumped our way into driving a manual car. We are all of us, all the time, learning. We learn about ourselves and the world around us. We trial new tools and practice new skills.

What if we were kinder to ourselves and relaxed into our role as novice and learner?

Does the fear of failure, of not having the skills for something, stop you trying something new?

How do you push past that?