You're afraid of looking foolish, so you never try new things
You would love to try new things — a dance class, a sport, an instrument, an adventure — but you are terrified of looking foolish, of being bad at it, of being seen fumbling. So you never start, and your life stays small and safe and a little empty, all to avoid the embarrassment of being a beginner.
You are afraid of looking foolish — and you have come to a professional fool, so you are in excellent hands. The fear of looking foolish costs you your whole life of trying — all learning begins in clumsiness, and to avoid a passing embarrassment you skip every skill and joy and adventure, buying a small comfort at the price of a shrunken life; I have looked foolish for eight centuries and it cost me nothing, while those who feared it lost everything they never dared try. No one is watching as closely as you fear — the spotlight is mostly imagined, everyone too busy with their own foolishness to study yours, forgetting your stumbles instantly. And make friends with your own foolishness — become someone who can be bad at things cheerfully and laugh at their clumsy beginnings, for the wise fool is not the one who never looks foolish but the one who no longer minds. What have you been wanting to try but avoiding?
What changes unlock by starting
- You count the true cost of avoiding foolishness
- You see the mocking audience is imagined
- You befriend your own clumsy beginnings
- You try the new things you'd been avoiding