​Learning a New Skill Starts in the Mind

The first test of learning isn’t whether you can do it. It’s whether you can handle what it feels like to be a beginner again.

Before you practice a new skill, you have to decide if you are ready for what comes with it.

Ask yourself:

• Am I willing to admit I do not know this and be okay with being wrong at first?

• Am I open to feeling clumsy while I figure it out?

• Will I bounce back when I fail instead of quitting?

• Can I act the part before I fully own the skill?

• Do I want to meet the person I will become on the other side?

That is the real starting line.

The obstacle is not the difficulty of the skill. The obstacle is our resistance to being a beginner again. Greatness demands that you walk through incompetence before you earn confidence. Every expert has stood where you are, choosing to look foolish for a season in order to become extraordinary later.

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.” — Shunryu Suzuki

Skip this mindset work and you will stay the same. Embrace it and you open the door to who you are becoming.

Question for you: What skill have you avoided because you were not willing to feel like a beginner again?

If this resonated with you and you are ready to step into your own next level, let’s talk.