Every Master use to be a Disaster!
Do you know someone that is really really good at what they do? Maybe you look at someone who is famous like an actor or singer and it seems like they lead a charmed life. Well regardless of whether they are a famous actor or singer, musician, a doctor or lawyer, a speaker, or any other kind of professional, I will guarantee you one thing. I will guarantee you there was a time when they knew absolutely nothing what they are now and so great at what they are doing.
A lot of times we don’t see the struggles on what it took to get where they are now. We only see who they are now. I will also guarantee you that when they first began their career that they made a lot of mistakes along the way. They stumbled along and probably even made a fool of themselves on more than one occasion. They were learning how to be proficient at what they are currently doing now. Although they now look like a master, they were once a total disaster.
People need to have a starting point if they do not know how to do something. I don’t know if anyone who starts at the end of the process as everyone I know usually starts at the beginning. Think about when a child first learns to ride a bicycle, they do not start by signing up for the Tour de France. A child usually starts by writing a tricycle before they move up to a bike. When they begin to ride a bicycle they usually fall off several times until they get the hang of it and how to balance themselves on this two wheeled vehicle.
I have watched these competitions for bicycles and I am amazed at some of the tricks that these youngsters can pull off. I have seen them do flips and jump off of ramps, dismount in midair and get back on before landing safely on their wheels. I never considered doing something like that when I was kid. I was content when my bicycle would work to get me around the neighborhood.
I remember a quote from zig Ziglar, the famous motivational speaker. He once said, “Anything in life worth doing at all is worth doing poorly—until you can learn how to do a well.”
He use that as an example of how everyone has to start from a place of incompetence until they learn how to be competent. This is called the process of trial and error. Rest assured that whether you are painting a picture, cutting someone’s hair, playing golf, building a house, or any other profession, they had to go through the pain of seeing their work fail miserably time and again until they could get good enough at it to know what they are doing now.
I was once a very high level CNC programmer/machinist for the aerospace industry. I honed my craft to become very proficient at programming and setting up a CNC lathe machine. I remember my boss reprimanding a person about goofing off too much and they pointed to me and said that I do it as well. My boss came back and said that I make it look easy because of the experience that I have and I always get the job done on time. When you become so proficient at what you’re doing now that you make it look easy that other people only see you now and not the struggles you’ve gone through in the past to get to where you are now.
I suggest this week that you look at your career and your life three different set of eyes. Give yourself some slack and realize that you may be in the process of learning how to do what you do better. This is a journey and it is through that process that you will get good and maybe even great at what you are doing.
I bet that when you finally become a master at what you are doing that you would be the first one to stand up and tell people the fact that you were once a disaster at what everyone thinks comes to you so naturally and easily now. You will then be able to encourage others by telling them some of the horror stories and mistakes that you made in your own life as you were developing the skill that shows through so brilliantly now.
Thoughts like this really encourage me and should encourage you as well. They help me to keep trying and giving me hope that my future will be better than the past. Life truly is a journey and we should be learning all that we can as we travel along life’s long road.
You should be striving to become a master at whatever you love to do. Just keep doing it and don’t ever give up or quit. You deserve to be a master of yourself and it just simply takes time and you are then on your way.
Keith Young
High Performance coach
Law of Attraction Specialist