I’ve seen a lot of sappy posts floating around social media lately, and I’ve got to say, I find them a bit tiresome. I realize people are trying to spread positivity, but the generic reassurances that “you are enough” are getting old.

Aside from the fact that a generic assurance is too broad to really apply in any meaningful way to anyone in particular, the statement of “you are enough” deals with a question that is frankly not even worth asking.

Are You Enough?

The answer is no. You are not. That’s fine, though, because nobody really is.

You see, most people aren’t good enough to be doing whatever it is they’re doing. Plenty of people have a surplus of confidence that is only matched by their outright incompetence, yet they seem to do well enough for themselves. Some of them are even wildly successful, in spite of their many mistakes. Yes, sometimes those mistakes harm others, but these self-assured souls still manage to help a great many people as well. They don’t worry about whether they’re good enough because they assume that they already are.

Meanwhile, you’re scrolling through social media wondering whether you’re good enough to do this or worthy enough to receive that, and all the while you could be pursuing this or that with at least the awareness that you’re not perfect. That self-awareness can lead you to avoid or rectify mistakes that your more clueless peers would overlook entirely.

If you’re self-aware enough to realize how flawed you are, then you’re probably more competent than people who don’t bother to think about it, which in a way qualifies you to at least try to pursue what you desire.

The More You Know, the More You Know You Don’t Know

A good analogy for this is how people’s confidence in their knowledge changes the more they learn about a subject. When you know nothing about something, you’re aware of it. You are absolutely clueless, and you know that you’ll need to do some studying if you want to understand it.

A peculiar phenomenon is that once you get a little knowledge about something, it’s easy to think that you know everything there is to know about it, even though you’ve only scratched the surface. You might be satisfied to stop there.

However, if you persist in learning more, you’ll quickly realize that you actually don’t know much of anything. The more you know, the more gaps in your knowledge you’ll be aware of. You’ll realize more and more just how much there is to learn about the subject, and it’s easy to feel unqualified to even speak on it, let alone teach it or apply it in a profession.

Maybe your knowledge is meager when compared to the sum total of truth on a subject. However, you already know more than the person who stopped learning too early and now thinks they know it all, so you’re at least more qualified to use your knowledge than they are. At the very least, you’re in a better position to improve yourself.

Forgive Yourself, Forgive Others

You will probably make mistakes. You’ll never be good enough to avoid them. There’s a lot that you don’t know or that you can’t do or that you don’t deserve. However, none of that matters. All that matters is your willingness to try.

When you fail, pick yourself up and try again. When you make a mistake, forgive yourself, make reparations, and try to do better. In so doing, you’ll create a pattern of continuous improvement that will make you far more reliable than those who presume they’re already enough.

When others make mistakes, forgive them. They’re trying their best, just like you.

The truth is, if you wait until you feel fully qualified to do that thing you want to do, you’ll never do it. You’ve got to start at some point. Might as well start now.

This is not to discount the need for preparation. Study, training, education, etc. are all important, especially in professional fields where lives are at stake. But so too is action. If you do nothing, you’ll never get anywhere.

So stop bothering about whether you’re “enough.” It doesn’t matter if you’re “enough” or not. Go do the thing anyway.

Stay tuned for Part 2: Soldiers.

The Astral Wanderer is brought to you by the incessant burning rage that gets me up in the morning. Share this post with your friends or feel the unadulterated wrath of the cosmos. You don’t want to feel the unadulterated wrath of the cosmos. Really.