Another card triggered by something that came across my path. I was reading an article about being average, and in reading that, I realized that our way of looking at success is often skewed by what we consume, and can be pretty flawed.
Focus on competence first
There is so much focus on being exemplary. When starting out thought, you need to focus on competence and getting the basic elements correct.
This means you need to know what the basic elements are and what “good” looks like.
It’s ok to be ok.
I think many of us may fall victim to things we hear and see in across the various media that we consume, and we may set unreasonable expectations for what we should be doing and how well we should be those things. I think that much of that media can cause us to get a skewed or warped sense of how “good” people are at anything really. This translates into thinking that things should be “easy” or that we should just “get it” or things should just “click into place”
You wanna get good at something? You want to establish new habits and turn them into your way of living? You have a burning desire and intention behind your actions? Great! It’s not just gonna happen because you tried to do it once, and it probably won’t be perfect the first go round. Life rarely works that (I won’t say never because I am sure that lightning does strike occasionally). What’s far more common is that people put in lots of work and effort consistently over a long period of time.
It’s not ok to drift through and not have clarity about what is even nominal first, otherwise you might just end up frustrating yourself into quitting.
Here’s some questions to ask yourself as you start your path to competence.
Question: Do you know the basic elements you should be focusing on to accomplish your goals? Where can you go to get that information if you don’t?
Question: Do I know what “good” looks like when it comes to what I want to do? If I don’t know, is there somewhere that I can go learn and observe what “good” looks like?
Question: Is there someone I can learn from who already knows how to do this well? Can they coach me?
Question: How can I start taking action today that will move me forward and help me learn?
Don’t worry about being exemplary day 1 or even day 100, worry about getting reasonably competent and learning. Focus on taking intentional action consistently that moves you toward your goal. Reflect often on your progress and adjust your approach as necessary based on your practice and learning.