Finding the will to fail

A musician I met on a train once suggested I read "Art and Fear" and it just came up again, so I'll keep looking in the used bookstores, or perhaps the library.  I made something for a bake sale later today and missed going to church, so am reading "Drops Like Stars" by Rob Bell.  He talks about suffering (here it is again, kinda' what I was talking about in the post I think I ended up deleting) and how that bonds us and is the means for growth. I still maintain that we can grow from deep joyful experiences as well. (I'm kinda' tired of suffering.) But he also talks about perfection vs. failure. Which is kinda' my problem, I often feel like things have to be perfect (like being born fully formed out of the head of Zeus) and it paralyzes me into inaction. Where what would be the more useful, productive course would be to try and fail, and yet I am terrified of failing, so I make excuses not to start (exception being cooking). I think I was already timid, and then so beat down when I was wrong when I was younger that I became afraid of trying. And I know I'm not that person anymore. And I know I can have encouragement if I ask for it, or seek out experiences where the other people are secure enough in themselves to offer it to others without feeling threatened by someone else's success. And I'm grateful for "teachers" that have come into my life and said basically, "Yeah, make a fool of yourself. Overdo it. Fail. It's okay. It's how you learn." I digress. The idea is that by trying and failing and then using the failure as an opportunity to grow, even if only in small increments, progress, growth occurs. Whereas if you think you need to be perfect from the get-go (and there is this pervasive myth and focus on that out in the background noise of the world) you don't learn anything.  How can you be perfect at something you have never done before (unless it's beginner's luck?) We really can't be. We see the bright moments (of others), but we rarely glimpse the hours of practice behind them, the sacrifices made to achieve them.  It's better just to start.  And make steps everyday, even if only centimeters forward.  Practice is committment.