QUEST

In our beloved fairy-tale Alice and the wonderland Alice comes to a fork in the road, she doesn’t know where to go. When the cat asks her where she wants to go, Alice replies ‘I don’t really know around this place , the Cat responds with a smile ‘ If you don’t know where you want to go, any road will take you there’.

Hey there its Iris,

I recently experienced a frustrating time in my life where I was short of ideas, even if I had them it was becoming difficult to articulate them into a piece of writing I am truly convinced of. It started bothering me to a level that I had dreams about it. Having no ideas made me suspicious that probably life has pushed me away from my craft and I eventually doubted what I was doing. Thank god to that one morning when I was determined to find a solution and know what is happening with me to ultimately learn about the writer’s block . It’s a mental block which stops a person from embracing his creativity as he strives for unattainable perfection, failures never solve their true purpose in the process and makes the person overly cautious.

Introspecting the truth about what was really stopping me was a point of self-analysis since I have never been a person who believes in the illusion of perfection.
Pondering, I realised the countless times we forgo something in life looking for perfection and never actually enjoy the process of receiving the greatest gift of failure. Why a gift you ask? Because, every time you fail, you learn and not only find one way to not do something but we also miss on the fact that it was the times you failed is why you finally land where should be.

I read a short story of a lady who starved for body perfection. She always had that ideal body in mind that she never achieved. One day she had her dear friend in town after 8 years who invited her to party and spend some time together, She was skeptical about whether to go or not because she was cautious of her body and didn’t want to wear baggy clothes in front of other people to hide her flabs. Regretfully she says ‘I stayed home doing treadmill at my parent’s basement running as hard as I could to burn calories as if I’ll lose all my fat that day , It was my birthday that day’ she added.

Perfection is an unattainable goal which continues to make so many people insecure on everyday basis propelling us from creating something of our own, even if that is moments. In that Interview she further added that she wished she never strived for perfection to regret loosing on living in the moments and experiences she could have forever cherished.

We attempt to endeavour faultlessness in the fear of being judged. Calling the struggle to perfection an act of Improvement is like comparing the moon to the sun , looks same from outside but is entirely different from the inside , you can never attain the sun in fact might burn miles away from it while Sir Neil Armstrong gracefully proves the latter.
Gazing deep into that unachievable goal we forget to fail, learn, stand up, fail, learn, stand-up…. Until we get something we call of our own and come to a point to be able to connect the dots as well as thank every failure and bid a good bye with a promise to see again.
The fear of failure blinds us from acknowledging how beautifully our own journey is unfolding before our eyes. We all have been and will be there as long as we live.

Thomas Edison failed 1000 times before inventing the bulb at the end. When asked about what he feels about failing so many times, he says ‘I feel lucky to have failed a thousand times because each time I discovered one new way that a bulb can’t be made’. Till this very day we see improved versions of bulb which implies that even his invention wasn’t for a perfect outcome. It exists to give him something he could call of his own and though we get countless better versions of this source of light, the iconic bulb is the fundamental of all inventions. Think what would have happened if Sir Thomas Edison kept struggling for perfection, it’s a never ending quest which would have stopped him from blessing us with his contribution.
If Alice keeps on finding a perfect path she will never be able to take the wrong turns and know exactly where not to go to finally reach where she is meant to be.

It’s not that hard to stop running behind perfection, all it takes is to stand where you are and know that whatever follows will take you exactly where you should be. Just like my idea was in my struggle of finding idea itself.

So, the next time you see a dead end at the end of a fork, tell yourself it’s nothing , just another writer’s block.