This is a guest post by Sean Davis of SDavisMedia.
Everyday, I wake up, think about what I want to do, sit down to do it, and then talk myself out of it.
Not because it’s the wrong thing to do. But because I don’t feel like I’m good enough yet.
I can’t write a book until I experience more. I can’t launch a product until my email list is bigger. I can’t cook breakfast until I watch a YouTube video on how to scramble eggs. Luckily, the video won’t buffer. I’ll just pour a bowl of cereal instead.
No matter the task, I always find reasons not to do it. It’s never the right time to make it happen. Something else always has to happen first.
And this, my friends, is grade A bullcrap.
Why We Don’t Take Action
Too often, we hold ourselves to a higher standard because that’s what self-development teaches.
At first glance, that seems like a good thing. Is it always, though?
I’m going to argue that it’s not. Hear me out.
What’s the shortest distance between Point A and Point B?
If you guessed, “a straight line,” congratulations on being an expert in that area. Here’s the problem, though.
Most people don’t pay attention to what defines a line.
By definition, and heavily summarized, a line is a continuous point extending in a given direction. There are no breaks in a line.
So, why is that people expect to have super human teleportation powers when going from novice to expert?
It’s impossible (excuse my language).
You’re currently at Point A, as inexperienced as can be. Now, all of a sudden, you want to do the world’s best work as if you have already reached Point B?What happened to the straight, continuous line? That’s the most direct path, right?
When you set out to write the best book in the history of the Earth, you immediately start comparing your output to the best writing you’ve ever read.
Now, you’re frustrated because you tried to teleport from Point A to Point B and it didn’t work. You’re not that good yet. Your work isn’t quite perfect at this point. Bummer.
After touching that pot a few times, you’ve decided to chill at Point A until you’re finally an expert. Then, you’ll start writing again.
Days, months, and years go by and you’ve done nothing but psych yourself out.
Shame on you.
Embrace the Straight and Narrow
Between those two points is where magic happens. Everything you do along that continuous line is possible because of what you’ve done prior to that point.
There are no shortcuts. You need to walk that lonely road without digression or go find something else to do. Period.
Here’s the kicker, though.
You’re going to suck… bad. But how much you suck will be inversely proportional to how close you are to point B. In other words, as you walk the line, you’ll get better at what you do.
Your first book might not be great. That first blog design might look like pure garbage. That’s fine. It’s when you create garbage, and acknowledge that it’s garbage, that you’ll learn what it takes to no longer create garbage.
Make sense?
From right here at Point A, right now, start making moves. This is not college. Your 2.3GPA freshman year will not haunt you’re when you’re trying to get into grad school.
You’re allowed to improve upon your old self without penalty.
Just make sure you understand that you must improve upon your old self in order to grow into that expert you want so desperately to be.
Do your work… so that your work becomes good work… and eventually, great work.
Before you know it, Point B will be your new Point A. That’s for another article, though.
The Takeaway
Don’t get caught up in the hype of being an expert. Expertise is relative. No matter what, there is always someone striving to get to where you are. You’re an expert to them.
With that being said, stop believing that you know exactly what expertise looks like. It’s different for everyone.
Learn to be as much of an expert that your current level of knowledge will allow. That way, you can build upon that knowledge with experience, and keep improving.
The current you has no right to demand perfection.
Instead, try demanding progress.
In a comment on his article about triathlons, Joel Runyon said that “Every ‘expert’ has to start somewhere. If you want to be an Ironman, you have to get in the water for your first sprint. As glamorous as being an ‘expert’ sounds, all experts have to be beginners at some point.”
You never know, somewhere along the line, people may just label you as an expert much earlier than you expected. You may not even feel deserving. But you have to get started… and you’ll probably suck at first.
Just understand that you’re expert enough to take the next step right now. So just do it.
Great post, Sean!
It can be hard to deal with those initial stumbles along the way. But being able to see failure as feedback is so important in terms over moving on to your next step.
Exactly, Jason. Failure is the best feedback you can receive, if you ask me.
That fear of failure makes people worry to the point where they do nothing. But I once read that worrying was like paying interest on a debt that you may never even owe. How foolish is that?
Just do work. Of everything, the decision to take the next step is the only thing you really have control over. So just freakin’ do it!
Thanks for reading.
So wise, and just what I needed to hear today as I was bellyaching about my lack of experience. Lev Vygotsky identified the area of growth as something called the Zone of Proximal Development, and it requires the individual to stretch just beyond what they can do comfortably and independently. Trial and failure is a part of learning–but too often we want things to be neat and tidy instead of what it really is–messy and filled with great opportunities to grow.
Exactly. I never heard of the Zone of Proximal Development until just now… and that’s exactly what we need to embrace.
Keeping with the reference of children in the definition, could you imagine a 3 year old simply trying to do exactly what an adult does? Actually, we see it all the time in kids and it just doesn’t work that way.
It’s the same thing for the novice wanting to become an expert. You can’t just create that existence. There’s a learning curve.
Thanks a bunch for that reference. I learn something new everyday.
Perfection is always incomplete … never run after it.
Plain and simple. Thanks for reading.
Great Post…and what a perfect first line:
“Everyday, I wake up, think about what I want to do, sit down to do it, and then talk myself out of it.”
How many times are we our own worst enemy. Encouraging words. Thanks.
Hey thanks a lot for reading, Bill. If you all haven’t noticed, this article was actually a rant in the mirror. However, I know that I’m not the only one who goes through these things. So, I figured I’d write from the heart and see who else could relate.
Glad I did. Thanks again for reading.
I encourage myself daily, but your article has the right arguments to take me out of the anxiety to fail.
To fail at what anyway? Trying? Improving? Succeeding?
Thanks, Sean.
Exactly, Gael. To fail at what anyway?
Most of the time, we don’t even know what it is we’re scared of. And when we do, it’s probably not even worth acknowledging.
Just do work. That’s really all it boils down to… getting stuff done.
Sean,
This is really great advice and spin on getting over procrastination, fear, uncertainty and the strive for perfection. All those things I know too much about.
There are so many areas of my life where this lesson applies. I’ve done a better job lately with a few things but need to adopt this mindset to a couple of personal areas.
I’m all buckled up and prepared for rocky but an exciting journey from A to B!
Thanks Sean, I really enjoy reading your stuff!
Thanks a bunch for reading, Jordan!
I wish I had a handle on this already but the truth is, I was talking to myself here. It’s so hard to get a grip on this because we’re naturally wired to keep ourselves “safe.”
Understanding that fear is key, though. Once you conquer that, you learn to do more shipping and less analyzing. And before you know it, you’re an “expert” at shipping.
It’s a tough process but I believe in it!
Thanks for stopping by, my friend.
Great post, Sean. It’s so hard to stop fiddling with all the extraneous crap and just *do* stuff. Ironically, I found this post while putting off my daily review.
I love your points about failure. It’s so often perceived to be this monster that we should avoid at all costs, but people don’t realize that failure rarely kills. It’s like that Edison quote, “I didn’t fail, I just found 10,000 ways that didn’t work.”
Starting seems to be the key for me. Once I get rolling on a project I can usually see it to the end if it’s a smaller project (writing an email, editing a newsletter, etc.) but I find myself procrastinating second/third steps on bigger projects. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on dealing with those type of projects.
Keep up the great work!
-Andrew
I appreciate your thoughtful comment, Andrew.
I am the same way. Once I get started on the smaller stuff, it’s not too hard to finish. And by “get started,” it can be as simple as writing a task down. That usually does it for me.
On the bigger things, I lose sight of the end just like you do. I think it’s because we start our tasks with the big picture in mind. But as we get deeper into the project, we get “wrapped around the axle” and spend too much time worrying about the finer details. If those details themselves don’t care enough stand-alone weight, we quit them. And if we quit them, sometimes we quit the entire project.
To get through that, I like to remember this quote by Albert Gray.
“Successful men are influenced by the desire for pleasing results. Failures are influenced by the desire for pleasing methods and are inclined to be satisfied with such results as can be obtained by doing things they like to do.”
Plain and simple, every small task I do is part of something bigger. So it’s not the small task’s place to knock you off course. The only think worth paying attention to is the main goal.
If it’s worth it, who cares about the smaller tasks within? If it’s not worth it, well… we know the rest.
Thanks a ton for reading.
I love this post! Thank you Sean! It seems it came at the exact right moment too! I am always doing that to myself – demanding perfection – even when I know I just started something and there is no way I am going to be as good as the professionals!
It’s so nice to hear this explained so well. Someone once told me to stop comparing myself to others, instead to compare myself to my past self and try and get better each day. Same thing I guess, but yours is much better put!
Aww thank you for the words, Hani!
The day I wrote this was definitely not the first time I had done this to myself. You’d be surprised to know that I had been putting off guest posting for the exact reasons explained in this article. Then, I decided to give myself a good a** chewing and this article was born. As it turns out, it’s doing quite well… and I did not expect that at all.
It just goes to show the only thing that matters is taking the next step. We can’t predict anything anyway so just make a move. Either you fail and learn from it. Or you succeed, learn from it, and do it again!
Thanks so much for reading.
P.S. (Your site is outstanding)
Awesome read Sean,
I think I must’ve done all the negative points already so the only way left now is on a straight line ahead.
I loved this bit you mentioned from Joel Runnyon: “…all experts have to be beginners at some point”.
It allows you to feel comfortable with whatever you end up on your first attempt, which played a huge part on my problems with perfectionism.
I’ll let you know how it goes after I have created and successfully launched my product and thanks for the awesome article Sean.
Learnt a lot today.
Sergio
I’m glad to hear it, Sergio. You know wer’re going through the same ugly process right now of creating our courses. If we get too caught up on perfectionism, those things will never come out! It’s time to just do work. Before we know it, we’ll be considered experts without even trying. Crazy.