I’m the worst at spear fishing.
I’m very mediocre at managing the harbor traffic in Savannah. (The title “Harbor Master” intrigues me, but the “not crashing boats into one another part” is where I would probably get fired.)
How do I know all of these things?
Because I’ve never done any of them. That’s one of the simple rules of life that I think we can all agree on. You will be bad at things you’ve never done.
But though we know that in our heads, I’m often shocked at how often we don’t really live that out in our lives. There’s a great temptation to beat yourself up when you start doing something new and it doesn’t instantly go well.
In ordinary days, that habit of demanding instant success from new things is a bit of an annoyance. But right now? It’s toxic.
Why? Because this is a huge, crazy season of new.
None of my friends has been through a global pandemic, election year and looming recession before. I don’t know a single person right now that’s saying, “It’s cool, this is my fifth deadly virus pandemic and I’m an expert at these.”
We’re all neck deep in doing new things and pivoting and changing our jobs and ahhhh, when will our kids go back to school?
Do you know what you need right now? Do you know what mindset will save you gobs of frustration? Do you know what approach will give you freedom to learn without judgment?
You need to be brave enough to be bad at something new. Or, said with a smidge more aggression, “Don’t be afraid to suck at something new.”
What do I mean by that?
This.
I made a short video explaining what it takes to do something new without judging yourself so quickly that you quit before you’ve had the opportunity to get better.
The video has a brief stingray story, someone close to me telling me my other videos were boring and some dry cleaning in the background for ambiance. Obviously it has those three things.
If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the new that’s being thrown at you right now, watch this.
Jon
P.S. Did you know I have a new YouTube channel? You should subscribe.