A story, even if foreign to our reality, could spark the beginning of an
adventure, refresh our motivation, or plant seeds that could flourish someday, or never. Our objectives might differ vastly from other people in complexity, context, or motives. However, there are constants in each goal; all intent arises from something that brings meaning to us or causes emotion, there will be skills to master and the responsibility to face vague and hard-to-answer questions. I want to share with you the particular story of Laotze’s Dialogues materialization, the ideas that made them come to life, and the struggles that came along.

What if…

Imagine you could take activities you enjoy, and combine them into one. Reading is an incredible way of exploring the worldview of great minds and our own, especially when leading to dialogue. “What if I wrote, rather than just read?” I asked myself. For a long time, I was pleased with being my reader. However, the drive to expand writing beyond myself emerged. So I kept asking, what is the next step? A blog was the opportunity to accomplish such a task; the project will promote the search for new thoughts, ask for creative ways of expression, and present the need to push my technical skills, besides being a home where my writing could live, be visited, and shared. I spared no effort.

Overwhelming to-do list

An idea might sound great on paper, but sometimes we don’t conceive the size of a challenge until we take the plunge. There were a lot of areas I had to work on before the website would be ready, such as the technical side, writing, translations, and everything I could not foresee. It was overwhelming. That impact could be the end of an idea. However, we don’t have to do it all at once. I broke the process down into a plan the overall structure, and the steps to follow, leaving room for the unexpected. By focusing on a fragment of the problem, we can grasp its nature, therefore closer to the solution. But not all obstacles were so straightforward.

Uncertainty, lots of it

There were challenges with a characteristic in common; these had no simple answer. The creation of the blog not only stretched my skills but also tested me as a person. Uncertainty was another aspect to face. The lack of abilities is simple to tackle; knowledge of the area, problem-solving, and practice, and you are ready. However, how do you confront a situation that does not have an absolute answer? Ask yourself how you would take an artistic means, flexible and limitless as they are, and give it an arbitrary shape, how much of yourself are you willing to pour over this piece of art? How much of yourself are you willing to give up for your ideals?

Begin now

Being entirely prepared and having absolute certainty are not requirements for pursuing whatever objective. To this date, there still exists uncertainty, and a plethora of skills to master regarding Laotze’s Dialogues, constants that exist in every goal we seek. Regardless of such conditions, at our scale and pace, we must take the first step now by planning what and how, mastering the skills necessary, organizing our resources, objectively evaluating our progress, learning from our errors, providing our unique answer to the vague questions, and repeating the process. The complexity of my writing has increased; it goes beyond me, the process is arduous, and I never relish writing and reading more than now.