We All Suck At The Beginning

“See you at the next Olympics” - my swim teacher. This has been a recurring joke.

It's been four months since I embarked on my swimming journey after being rooted in a fear of drowning my entire life. I leave myself in awe at the extent of skills improvement in a short period of time. My swim teacher also echoed to me, “you don't give up”.

With skateboarding, I started by standing on the board with shaky legs while holding a fence for dear life. I now have budding confidence in increasing speed and turning (including taking front wheels off ground for sharper angles) within the fifth time of practice.

Do I have natural talent? No. Do I have some extra-terrestrial ability that others don't have? No. Do I have prior experience? No. Did I teleport to my current skill level without effort and work? No. Do I have the will to see it through to the end? Yes. Am I stubborn as hell? Absolutely, without question.

When we see a professional or someone at a higher skill level then we are in the craft or endeavour, we may feel discouraged to even start, thinking “I'm not good enough to do that” or “I can never do that”. The reality is that everyone sucks at the beginning. Everyone knows nothing and has no skills. The problem is we often forget this in seeing seemingly flawless talent and abilities. I saw a young kid navigate skate ramps like it was nothing, and I was left in awe and inspired, as opposed to feeling defeated by someone so young.

The only thing that differentiates the people who succeed and the ones who don’t is action. At the core, it is whether you do or you don't. You take action or you don't. You show up or you don't. Also, feelings are temporary, and if we marry actions to certain moods (i.e., I'll only do it if I feel motivated/in the mood), we won't get very far. Emotions are not a choice, but allowing it to control us long-term is. It's in our own hands.