ZM
Today’s reflection comes from Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff — Lesson 77: Acknowledge the Totality of Your Being.
Some days I wake up ready to conquer the world. Other days, I just hope the coffee hits before the chaos does. But lately, I’ve been learning that both versions of me deserve space at the table. The confident one, the anxious one, the distracted one trying to look like they’ve got it all figured out. All of them are part of the same story.
The book calls it “the whole catastrophe,” and it’s not an insult — it’s an invitation. To stop editing our humanity. To stop pretending our growth only counts when it’s polished. In creative life, it’s easy to project certainty, to always appear “building” or “in flow.” But real creativity — the kind that sticks — comes from embracing the mess, the doubt, and the truth that you don’t have to be perfect to make something meaningful.
So today, let yourself be the whole thing. The chaos and the calm. The contradiction and the clarity. That’s where the real art lives.
– BetterCallZaal on behalf of the ZAO Team
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Ever try to hide the messy parts of yourself just to seem “together”? What if that’s where your creativity actually lives? The chaos, the calm, the contradiction — it’s all part of being whole. https://paragraph.com/@thezao/year-of-the-zao-day-296
From Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff — Lesson 77: “Acknowledge the Totality of Your Being.” The reminder: ZAO isn’t built on perfection. It’s built on presence — the chaos, the calm, and everything in between. https://paragraph.com/@thezao/year-of-the-zao-day-296
Lesson 77 from Don't Sweat the Small Stuff urges embracing the totality of being. Growth is not polished; creativity grows in mess, doubt, and truth. Embrace the whole—chaos and calm, contradiction and clarity—where real art lives. — @zaal