I have small kids. A three and a five year old. A boy and a girl. The other day for some reason they wanted to help me look pretty. (trying not to read into that, lol)
So they have a bottle of detangler spray (it has a purple octopus on it, so it’s in the cool pile), a comb and a round brush. (I think I can feel the people with long hair cringing away). Oh and a kid’s headband with two giant purple flowers which was too small for my adult head.
It gets better, they decided they wanted to do my nails. My daughter has a dozen different for kids nail polishes (the non toxic – you-could-eat-it-if-you-really-wanted-to, but-it-would-still-taste-way-bad kind).
Picture me sitting on the living room floor, next to a table with the nail polish bottles, and paper towels under my bare feet and hands. Got the picture? Now add the three and five year old.
For the next 15 minutes, they sprayed and brushed. Calling out to Daddy, doesn’t mommy look beautiful? (There is a right answer to that question. 🙂 ). I limited myself to the “be careful, don’t brush mommy’s ears off” or “don’t twist the round brush when you pull, mommy needs hair” comments.
And then came time for the nail polish.
They painted half the nail surface or most of the toe or would ‘accidentally’ color over an already painted and still wet nail. They glopped and missed and messed. And well, generally had a great time.
It occurred to me that I could be upset that I had a half a bottle of purple nail polish on my big toe, but the kids were experimenting and making mistakes.
They were having fun. (see?)
Some of my projects get stuck at the beginning. The fear of making a mistake or making a mess makes the first step feel like scaling the grand canyon. The fear of failure or the fear of looking like an idiot reduces the odds of me doing something new. Something new and scary. The task becomes daunting! (Do I get word points for that one?) – like blogging. (insert creepy music here)
As Nike says, just do it. Do it! Just start! Right now. (Did you start?) What’s the worse that could happen?
Fine print: I do not recommend jumping off buildings or putting a rocket on your back. Don’t do things that no human should do or should only be done by a trained professional (if you are a superhero, alien or figment of my imagination, you can ignore this warning). Don’t just do ‘it’ if it may result in peeps getting hurt or killed. That would be bad. Don’t make me get a rolled up newspaper.
What do you do to get yourself started on a project?