I suck. So do you. We all do. It’s just part of being alive. As Alexander Pope famously, and more politely put it -“to err is human.”

We should just accept the fact that we all suck sometimes, and learn how to deal with it. There’s no need to live in fear or to wallow in self-pity after we’ve sucked. The suck is going to happen at some point.

But there is a bright side! Fortunately most of us do not have jobs where sucking causes pain, injury or severe damage to someone else. This is a lucky break.

Now, if you are a surgeon or something like that, screwing up someone’s surgery is really bad and that really sucks. But for most of us, sucking usually just results in personal embarrassment and temporary reductions in self-esteem and respect from others.

Admittedly, these consequences aren’t great, but fortunately, we can often prevent ourselves from sucking by employing certain tools like:

1- preparation
2- research
3- practice
4- self- reflection 
5- learning from past experiences

If we use these tools, and if we also accept the premise that humans are predisposed to suck at some point, we should then be better equipped to deal with the aftermath and results of sucking when it happens to us. The point of all this is to say that suck (or the potential to suck) should in no way prevent us from taking chances, living our lives confidently and trying new things.

Remember decades ago when David Letterman wore a Velcro suit on his late night TV show? He jumped off a trampoline and stuck to a Velcro wall. It was very entertaining.  Fortunately, that is not how suck works.

Suck does not stick on you. Suck hits you and slithers down the length of your body until it falls off on the floor where you can stomp on it and squash it out.

So try something new! Who cares if it sucks? Give that speech, write that book, record that music, make that presentation, share that idea…

Are you stuck in suck?
Well you’re in luck!
The truth is -you can buck the suck!
Each of us can chuck our suck
Like excess water tossed off a duck.
Be strong. Be bold. Go try.
Good luck!

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