Why Starting Over is Nothing to Be Ashamed Of

Sometimes, you venture out without a plan. You don’t know what you’re doing or where you’re going, but you head out anyway because it’s the only way you can discover what it is you need to learn.

Pluck, Paint, Click

You pick up a guitar and hold it in your hands with no real knowledge of how it works or how to make it sing.

You grab a brush and some paints and you set yourself before an easel without any real understanding of how to craft an image.

You sign up and get yourself a blog though you don’t have an inkling as to how to create a post or upload an image.

You strum about; slap smudges of blue on a blank, white canvas; or you type, point, and click with wreckless abandon.

Stumble and Grow

Then you start to learn a few things. The strings make certain sounds (some that you like and some that you don’t) when you press them up here and pluck them down there. The lines come out that way when you hold the brush like this, and they come out this way when you sweep across like that. Your post’s title goes in this box, and the actual post goes in that one.

You make mistakes. You pull your hair out. You make adjustments. You move on.

Head Back? But Look How Far I’ve Come.

Deeper and deeper you go, wiser and wiser you grow, and you eventually have a fair understanding of what you know and what you need to bone up on. Then you suddenly realize you may need to start over.

But here’s the problem. You’ve worked so hard to get where you are. You can’t stand the thought of going back to the beginning. “I’m not a beginner,” you tell yourself, “I’ve been doing this for (fill in the blank: six days, six months, six years), and I don’t want to start over.”

In some ways you’re right. You’re not a beginner, at least not a total one. You’ve taken your first steps and you really ought to congratulate yourself for doing so. But you’re also not a master, and, now that you’ve fallen in love with this thing you’ve begun, mastery has a certain appeal.

The Benefits of Beginning Again

And that’s why you go back to the beginning. Because it’s worth it. Because it will enable you to master the steps you missed the first time around. Maybe, when you started, you didn’t even realize that some of the steps were necessary, but now you do.

If you continue to ignore them, you may find yourself walking in circles or into dead ends and feeling even more frustrated than you would if you’d just head back to the starting gate.

After all, it will be different this time. You’ll be more aware of the pitfalls and challenges. You’ll better understand what you hope to accomplish and where you want to wind up. You’ll know more about what it takes to make it all work.

It Might Not Be What It Looks Like

That business that flopped was not the end of a bad idea but the beginning of a good one. Those sculptures that never quite turned out the way you hoped were not proof that you have no talent. They were an indication that you need more practice.

Starting over is not a sign of failure; it’s just part of the process. You should be proud that you’ve come this far. You should be even prouder that you’re willing to head back to the beginning in order to do it better this time.

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