In under eights soccer, my Dad would only let us wear black footy boots. White boots are for kids who think they’re superstars, and colourful boots are completely out of the question. He would tell me “you wouldn’t want people to think you’re full of yourself”. The sub-text was loud and clear:
“Don’t put yourself out there”
Fast forward to grade 8 and I quickly learn that participating in cross-country or athletics day is ‘gay’. AFL? no. Soccer? no. Basketball at lunch? Embarrassing. Music or art? Absolutely not. Something like debating? Hilarious. Of course, the cool thing was sitting against a wall with your friends looking at your phone. I finish my schooling on the path of least judgement, always in a quiet desperation to do literally anything.
Then there are the broader cultural forces at play. Tall poppy is alive and well, conspiring against you to keep your talents inside. The social media industry hires the finest minds of our generation to hijack your attention; attention that could’ve been used to cultivate your talents and interests.
My personal journey with putting myself out has been a short one so far. Austin Kleon has a great book I’m reading called “Show your Work”. He points out that the real gap isn’t between being mediocre and being good, it is between doing nothing and doing something. Before you become good, you must first be mediocre. To be mediocre, you need to put something out there.
To succeed publicly, you have to fail publicly.
Anyway. It’s hard to put yourself out there. Do it regardless!
“That’s all any of us are: amateurs. We don’t live long enough to be anything else.” – Charlie Chaplin
“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and goto the grave with the song still in them” – Henry David Thoreau