Experience = Knowledge

Last year I spent a majority of my time reading articles on how-to-do-this and how-to-get-that done. It was a teaching experience that I took upon myself in order to fill up on knowledge. I thought to myself, "I don't know how to do that properly, so I better learn more so I can do it the right way."

It was really important to me that I do it the right way and I didn't think I knew how to do that even while I was doing it. I figured if I gathered up as much knowledge about the things I felt I was lacking in I would be able to do them properly, and more easily, and with much more confidence. I would be so good at it, there would be no chance of the thought going through my mind that I wasn't doing it right.

The silliest part was the things I was trying to get so proficient at, were things I just wanted to do and things I enjoyed doing. I was killing the joy of doing them by making out-of-reach goals I would never allow myself to acknowledge, even if I hit them but missed them the next day. So I would go back to reading more to find out what to do instead of taking back the inspiration and motivation I got from actually doing these things. It finally dawned on me that I am so much happier and have learned more from doing these things instead of reading about them.

The knowledge is great. I can't say I haven't learned a lot, but I also took it too far. You can't learn everything from a bunch of articles. You have to get out and do those things you want to do. Besides, when you actually start doing the things you enjoy, it's amazing how many more right ways there are to doing them then wrong ways.
TT