Go, be BAD at something

 This entry was posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2018 at 4:10 pm


I am not naturally inclined to try new things. Quite truthfully, I was the pain in the butt child that when asked to try something new to eat that immediately stated, “no!”. No good reason other than a resistance to try new things. I was pretty decent physically at sports, so trying new sports was not a big deal because my arrogance could push me physically to be able to compete. I think that most of us have a resistance to trying something new. The problem with that though is that only doing things that you are good at does nothing to push you to new levels as a person.

I started doing martial arts because I did not want to feel weak as a man. As a result, I have been very bad at jiu-jitsu for about 1.5 years……but, even though I know this, the idea for me is to keep showing up because the process of pushing myself through my own insecurities that tell me how bad I am (or, lets be honest, how much I suck at it) are ultimately speaking directly to my peccadillos and growing me as a person.

In one of my favorite books (Change or Die), the author speaks to the idea of (“Acting As If”). The principle being, how we act influences what we believe and what we feel. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word for “know” is usually a verb, designating something one does. To know love, one must not only know about love, one must act lovingly. It is the repetition that helps to promote the reframing. When you repeat a personal experience, over a long period of time, that conditions our gut level emotions and strongly held beliefs.

What we must do is to have NEW firsthand experiences, repeated over and over again, to begin to change our ways of thinking. The idea being, you have TO DO things in a new way before you can THINK in a new way.

My suggestion: do something you know you will be bad at for a while. If you are an accountant, learning the latest tax codes might help you at work, but will not grow you as a person. So, maybe try doing archery. If you are a nurse, just getting your CE’s is great for work, but what are you actively seeking out to do that you know you will be bad at for a while? How about ballroom dancing, or speed skating, or learning Arabic at the local school, or……….

Go, do something you know you will be bad at, on purpose. Trust me, it is the best thing for you as a person.

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