death of playfulness

In the journey of searching for truth, I have stumbled upon a question of playfulness and experimentation. I have noticed that many times I have an idea I would like to play with. A project, hobby, skill, or new knowledge. Every time I am facing a decision point to dive into the magnetism of the particular topic that interests me, there is an opposing force that is repelling me. That force is whispering: “it will take time, it is not worth to even start”. We have got used to live in the world of infinite possibilities. Unlimited information, infinite distractions and food abundance. Like homo economicus we are constantly evaluating opportunity costs. The problem of that is that opportunities are everywhere and time is scarce. The only unit we are running out. I can then easily slip into paralysis of not knowing what to decide for and simply freeze. This leads to a longer-term problem. All of the knowledge we absorb in a short term is shallow because the attention span and possibilities are so wide. It is the guiding fear of choosing the wrong endeavor in the long journey that is stopping us to make the first several steps. Not just the first step, but several steps. I truly believe that like in a relationship, the more depth we gain, the higher satisfaction comes. But that depth is not built overnight. Not by the first step. That depth is built over time when we sacrifice other opportunities. So what is the formula for choosing the right opportunity? There isn’t a generic one. Only instinct and joy of trying. I believe we must stop being perfect because we have no parallel universe to model the tree of all our choices. Perfect does not exist, only in Hollywood movies. We should use our instinct by asking deeply ourselves if we really want to do this and answering honestly. We must block the fear. No FOMO. No fear of making a mistake. No perfectionism. Only the joy of trying, experimenting even if it means 9 death ends for every 1 good turn. That’s why we are here. Not to fear, but to enjoy the experience of trying and be playful again.