Trying New Things

We are in prepping and packing mode at our house.  In four days one of my daughters is leaving for China for five months and my other daughter is leaving for her first semester of college.  

There are lots of lists and Amazon carts and half-filled suitcases in our life right now.  And there are also a lot of unknowns.  

Both of my girls are going to do something they have never done before.  They have no experience.  They have no evidence from their past that they will be successful at what they are about to do.

And yet, they are happily going anyway.

Research has shown that this is what we do until we are about 25—we learn as we go.  We try crawling and then walking and then riding a bike.  We try school and soccer and the trumpet.  We go to college and study abroad and we keep trying new things.

Until there comes a day when we don't anymore.  

After about age 25 we start looking to our past to find evidence that we can do something.  We stop being willing to fail and we start doing the things "we know we know how to do."

We say things like, "I don't think I can do that.  I've never done that before."

If we thought like that when we were growing up, we'd all still be laying on the floor in diapers.  Why do we as adults think we have to have done it before in order to have the confidence to do it now? 

Guess what?  You don't.

This month I've been working on creating my first Facebook ads.  Confession: before this month I didn't even have a Facebook page. It's been a steep learning curve for sure. Last night I asked my husband as I worked my way through another step of the process, "Who even am I?  I'm not the kind of person who does Facebook ads."  (I mean, I've never done it before, right?)

But—it turns out, I am.  Turns out, I can be.  Turns out, I'm still learning and I don't have to have a single bit of experience to do so.

So, I'm giving you permission to do all the things you've never done before.  You don't even have to know how.  You'll figure it out on the way.  

Just like you always have.