Start Now, Get Better Later
Start Before You Feel Ready
Starting something new feels uncomfortable because it exposes the gap between who we are and who we want to become. That’s normal. That’s the price of entry for any skill worth having.
When we start something new, it usually takes a long time before we become proficient. This is because we are still unfamiliar with the task. Most of us will be terrible in the beginning, sucking sucks and sometimes that’s the reason people quit, especially when pursuing difficult things.
Knowing and accepting that you will be incompetent at first is where the learning curve begins.
Take a look at the most basic things in your perspective, your job. When you started, you had to be trained, you didn’t know the simplest thing about your job at all, you might know your role, but you had to ask where the bathroom was, right? You had to ask if the parking was free? Even when you had experience with the same role, you still had to ask how things operate in your new workplace. Because as a newbie, “what you don’t know, should be more important than the things you already know”.
Joe Rogan is probably one of the most successful podcasters currently, but if you go back to his earlier podcast episodes, you could tell how amateur that shit is. Award winning actors like McConaughey, for example, started roles in B or C class rom-coms before getting the big roles.
They began with what they had, learned publicly, and improved relentlessly. Their success wasn’t talent alone. It was tolerance for being bad long enough to get good.
Whichever creative endeavor you pursue; writing, painting, drawing, acting, music or dancing. Whichever professional path you take; business, sales, entertainment or politics. Remember that you will not be as bad as you think, but also not as good as you think you are.
You’re somewhere in the middle, and the only way to move forward is through repetition.
Being bad is not a flaw. It’s a phase. A necessary one.
You should be comfortable at being bad especially in the beginning, because that’s how we improve, we need to get those reps in, we need to build discipline and resilience along the way.
When we open ourselves and accept that we have much to learn, we set ourselves up for true learning, and we absorb more. Not a glass half full or half empty, but rather a sponge ready to soak everything up.
No one’s saying try and suck purposely; no one’s saying don’t take things seriously either. Along the way you will commit mistakes, they’re supposed to, but along the way you also get proficient. The more practice you put in, the better you get, but it also becomes harder as you improve. Try to learn as many things as possible in the beginning, absorb what’s appropriate and necessary, then later discard what you don’t need for the job.
The early part of practice is important, even though it’s inefficient, and the hardest part is actually starting. The second hardest part is staying long enough to see improvement.
We just need to start. And what better time to start than right now.
What if it all works out?