CHAPTER 8

Embrace the Fear

You must never feel badly about making mistakes. . . as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.

— Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

About this time you may be saying to yourself, “I don’t know about all of this. You keep saying it’s simple. But it sounds hard. I’m afraid I won’t remember all of this.” Hear that big whooshing sound in the background? That’s fear—the big energy suck of modern life.

One thing many people don’t like to admit is that often they are afraid. We’re afraid we can’t get our work done if we stop to read someone else’s poorly written prose. We’re afraid we will miss something ...

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