Reflections on work, life, and the little things that make a difference
This column considers the small patterns that quietly shape our days – unpacking everyday moments to reveal deeper meaning. It doesn’t claim to offer answers but hopes to bring perspective and perhaps a little calm.
It Doesn’t Feel Like Fear (But It Is)
In the course of my work, I spend a fair bit of time helping people navigate digital technology. There are different groups, different backgrounds and different starting points, but often the same hesitation appears. On the surface, it looks like a reluctance to learn new things.
But over the years, I’ve come to recognise it as a kind of quiet fear. This is not fear in the dramatic sense but something more subtle. The fear of pressing the wrong button, or of making a mistake that can’t be undone. Of the fear of being scammed, embarrassed or exposed as not knowing enough. And so, the safest option from that perspective naturally becomes not to try at all.
What I’ve noticed, though, is that this fear doesn’t go away on its own. If anything, it grows quietly in the background, especially as technology becomes more present in everyday life. But interestingly, the way through it is rarely dramatic. It doesn’t come from mastering everything overnight or from getting it right the first time. More often, it comes from simply adopting the willingness to try and accept what happens next.
In terms of technology, that would be to click the button and see what happens, or to make a small mistake and realise that it wasn’t as final as it felt, then pause, recover and try again. And in those moments, something begins to shift because the fear has been met with a bit of patience and a bit of kindness toward oneself.
And from my experience, that changes the person’s relationship with technology entirely. What once felt intimidating begins to feel manageable, and what once felt risky begins to feel familiar.
A Thought to Carry With Us?
It made me reflect on how often we think the goal is to avoid mistakes, when perhaps the real goal is to become comfortable making them. Because with technology (as with many things in life) it’s not the stumble that matters but whether we allow for space to steady ourselves again.
Perhaps what we label as resistance isn’t always resistance at all. Perhaps it’s just fear waiting to be met with a little patience. And if so, the way forward wouldn’t be to eliminate that fear but to move gently alongside it, one small step at a time.
Ganga Sudhan enjoys finding small insights in everyday moments and sharing them as reflections on work, life and the in-betweens. You can reach him at ganga@rte.co.nz or find him on LinkedIn via the QR Code to follow his latest musings.
