What do you think when you see someone in an amazing photo, showing off a gorgeous rope tie?

What do you think when you read someone’s joy about their polyamory?

What do you think when you see someone in a searingly hot scene at a play space?

Do you envy them? Do you catalog all the reasons they have that and you don’t (if you don’t)? Do you think about how lucky they are?

Steve Jobs said something that really clicked with me, “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.”

It’s obvious when you stop to think about it, but how many of us really do that? It’s much more common to see someone successful and to feel intimidated or resentful. Like it’s not realistically something we could ever do.

I have news: It really does take a lot of work to make something successful. And most good things are worth working at. It’s not always pretty and fun. Even if all we tend to see are the bright, shiny aspects that come with “success,” or the surface displays of what success looks like.

And to me, that is not only explaining what other people do to get where they are.

It also gives a kind of permission to be bad at something now, because it’s one step of many towards something else. Also, it’s a step that MOST people won’t ever see or remember, once you are “successful.”

What are your thoughts?

Is being bad at something difficult for you? Frustrating? Discouraging?

Are you willing to share a time when you achieved something big (in kink or out of it)? What did it take to get there?