Be sure to check back on Wednesday. I have a wonderful guest post from personal fulfillment blogger Jennifer Gresham coming your way!
Here’s a preview: be careful with knives.
I’m not, as you might have guessed, much of a chef. But I’m not very clumsy, either, so trust me when I say that slicing into my finger instead of the radish came as a pretty big shock. It hurt like hell, too. Still does, in fact, but here’s the silver living: I learned, today, how not to chop vegetables. I can think of a hundred better ways to earn that kind of knowledge, but you know what?
Maybe this isn’t such a terrible thing. Maybe this was good, in some strange and twisted way. I could have done without damaging my digit, sure, but the little band-aid on my finger did offer a pretty valuable lesson.
I think it goes something like this: don’t let fear ever stop you from growing.
I shouldn’t be so hard on myself. I can cook. I’m still not a chef, by any definition, but I’ve picked up a pretty decent list of skills over the last few months, all of which make me feel pretty confident when I’m bouncing around the kitchen. Today’s radish catastrophe shook my confidence a bit, but I’m convinced it was a worthwhile experience to learn these three important things:
1. How to properly hold a knife so as to avoid slippage and fountains of blood.
2. What to do when the knife does slip, and how to properly bandage the wound.
3. Radishes might not be worth the trouble.
Minor victories, each of them, but a pretty important lesson when taken as a whole. I’d always been a little leery of the big knives before this, thinking sharp edges and my precious fingers don’t belong in the same room, but I’m not too concerned about wielding them any longer. Why be worried? Hold the knife in a way that it can’t contact your fingers, don’t try to chop as fast as the professionals, and make sure you know where the band-aids are in case something goes wrong.
Lesson thoroughly learned. And just one of many that I’ve collected since I decided to start cooking and forced myself to start experimenting with recipes. Eating healthy is important to me, and the easiest way to do that is to know exactly what you’re putting into your mouth, so culinary skills quickly earned their place at the top of my “To Learn” list. It was a bumpy ride, at first, but I’ve made some pretty spectacular dishes over the last few weeks, and – aside from today’s accident – have managed to build each time upon those previous successes.
I can safely say that I was afraid, at first. I would burn dishes! And under-cook meat! And everything would go wrong, wrong, wrong – but that’s okay.
That’s my big realization. I know, now, that learning is made of two parts: the desire to acquire a new skill, and the willingness to admit that you don’t have that knowledge in the first place.
The second one, I think, might be the hardest. It is for me – from an early age, I’ve always been afraid of looking unintelligent, to the point where I held myself back for fear of looking dumb. It’s hard to learn like that. You have to take chances on yourself, betting that you’ll come out of the experience a better person, and be confident enough to know that it’s okay if you don’t know how to do every thing under the sun. That’s why you’re trying to learn, right?
My miserable finger is proof of that. I was afraid to try the big knives, knowing they were well beyond my culinary expertise. That lack of knowledge came back to bite me, admittedly, but I gained valuable experience from the process, the kind of lesson learned by throwing myself into the fire and hoping for the best. Sure, I wish typing this didn’t make me wince, but it’s a pain I’ll accept (mostly) cheerfully, knowing I learned something simple and powerful from the whole process.
So what about you? What are you afraid of? It’s so scary, sometimes, to try and improve yourself, to admit that there’s something you want to change and actively move towards doing so. What examples from your own life are proof of that?
Don’t let them stop you. You want to learn Italian? Stop being afraid of how clueless you might look if the teacher calls on you in class. You want to learn how to play guitar? Don’t sweat it! You’re not going to be great at first, but there’s no rule in the book that says you have to be a musical prodigy from the start. The point is, folks, that you have to take chances if you want to learn something new. That risk might bring you pain or discomfort, but I think the product is well worth the price. You improve yourself, in the end, and I can promise you one thing: the satisfaction of doing something you’ve always wanted to do far outweighs the struggle along the way.
I can’t cut radishes like a professional yet, but I’m working on it. And the best part? I’ve already done the hard part. I took a chance on myself and faced my fear, leaving me with nothing to lose from this point forward. Those radishes are going down.
So tell me: what are you waiting for? What are you afraid of? Let me know!
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6 Comments »
I'm a writer, minimalist, and health dork with three goals in mind: to teach you how to lose weight, move more, and be happier by living a simple, natural life. It works. Like what you read here? Get 3NL delivered straight to your inbox!
Yes, love the headlines and it made me laugh. Had to read it! What about How I Lost My Fear and Kept All My Digits
Ooh, that’s exciting about the guest post, I love Jen:)
Hey Matt
Another great post. I wrote on fear some time ago, here: http://honestspeaks.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/fear/ and although I have faced many fears – including the fear of saying ‘No,’ and the fear of not being good enough, which held me back in so many ways, I am still working on the ultimate fear. If I can ever work past that one, I’ll be unstoppable
They don’t like me either…I’ve had a couple of near misses!
I liked your post and I particularly relate to your second point. The fear of looking silly/unintelligent/stupid can really hold you back. It can stop you from having a go at something, stop you from beginning or prevent you from joining a conversation. Once you realise that looking silly isn’t the end of the world – in fact it’s just the beginning
– then you can more easily move forward in situations that might have been difficult.
That’s exactly it! The fear of looking silly or uninformed can make you miss so many great things in life, let alone opportunities to learn and expand your knowledge. That’s a lesson I still struggle with, but freely admitting that I usually look like a fool has helped me significantly.
Thanks for stopping by, Majeeda! Hope I’ll see you here again!
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