“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.” – Nietzsche
This quote is an interesting concept, which I think is important to consider in human pursuit. To often we want to be really good at something before we will try or even attempt. We want to be awesome at it, and if we are not, we give up easily. In careful consideration, I think this comes out of a desire to be perfect, or what is called as perfectionism. The root emotion that causes this is fear.
When you have this desire to be perfect at something before you will even start, you must realize that you are rooted in a primal emotion. Fear is a very real and constant force in our life. We were designed to have a constant flow of impulses to our brain, and fear is one of those that are imperative for survival. Except for the fact, that rarely, in modern society are we impacted by anything serious or deadly in our environment. I realize that I am living in a part of the world where this is true, there are certainly areas of the world where legitimate fear for survival is part of everyday existence. However, I am going to assume for a moment that anyone that is reading this blog on a digital device, with a connection to the Internet, is somewhat free from deadly creatures or things that might maim or kill you.
I think we would be surprised at just how much we are motivated by this primal feeling of fear. In fact, it is probably out of control for us in many instances. It is completely unnecessary for us to have fear of failure or fear of what could happen. Just admit it, you are not a perfectionist, you are afraid. You will work yourself to exhaustion, or worry yourself to exhaustion in hopes that you will somehow feel worthy. You base your self worth on the external accomplishments that you seen in others. You feel like you have something to prove, because you have not achieved what they have. This leads to self hate, guilt, and you beat yourself up every time you try something and it does not come out looking like ‘it is supposed to.’
So the reason you want to fly into flying is because of this sense of perfectionism, or in reality, fear of failure. You want to know you can fly before you learn to fly. When expressed like this, it sounds ridiculous. Of course you must learn to crawl, walk, run before you can fly. However, in daily life, we do this all the time. We forget that it is ok to learn some steps before we try what we feel is what we should be capable of. We start to dribble the basketball, and because we do not look like Michael Jordan the first time, we throw the ball down with disgust and say, I am never going to be good at this. To afraid to admit that you need to start small? To afraid that you will not achieve the results you believe others want? Well, you better love paralysis because that is exactly where you are headed.
So in essence, Nietzsche was right. We must learn the next step in our progress and not simply achieve the final step just because we want to.
Guy Reams
