Doubt

I was wondering recently on why passion projects peter out. We all have great ideas and projects going on inside our heads, but most just wind up there. The few that do make it out into the real world are often covered in dust and hiding away in a closet only to be referenced at social events (back when those were a thing). We get excited when we talk about them but actually sitting there with the project well… we find other things to do. Trust me, I sat down to work on one of mine and here I am writing this blog post. In this binge of distraction, I wound up talking with one of my friends about a project of his and how we both were avoiding them. In that discussion we came to realize that the main enemy of passion projects is doubt.

When a project gets going and becomes real, the doubt does as well. Now that the project is real, we see the other similar projects already out there in the world. We then begin to compare and honestly, why would ours be any better? Our books, paintings, music, etc., could they really stack up against what’s already out there in the world? What if we put our project out there and get mocked? What if we try to be brave and fail? What then?

Doubt is crippling and the reason so many dreams are simply dreams: lofty ideas that never touch the ground. Doubt is also something that never really goes away, it will persist on like a cockroach. What we have to do then is squash it when we see it. Yes, there will undoubtedly be more but for now they are diminished. For now, that doubt is gone and you can have peace in knowing that you have made an effort against them. We must fight against this doubt and while we could fail at our projects, at least we can boast that we tried. We can proudly say “I gave it an honest shot” and prove our braveness. Most importantly though, we can boast about defeating doubt.