The fearful road to mastery

The journey to master is arduous, annoying, and full of so much pain that sometimes the mere thought of the activity, hobby, or passion can cause paralysis.  I have run into this so many times in my life that I have lost count.  I have been paralyzed into inaction far more than I have moved forward.  And you know what, everything that I regret in my life has come from inaction.  Everything.  Occasionally I’ll shake my head at myself for doing something dumb but who the hell remembers that?

I want to be a great writer, but I don’t want to write anything bad.  I want to be great at Jiu Jitsu but I am afraid of not looking good or knowledgeable while I train.  I want to become a great entrepreneur but I handicap myself with thoughts of inadequacy.  How can you become great at anything if you are afraid to do it?

I often forget that the quickest way to mastery is to practice.  The quality of what you produce day in and day out means nothing.  I’ll say that again.  During practice, the quality of your output is MEANINGLESS!  What matters is what you put into it; the input.

I don’t have to show anyone the words I write when they suck.  I don’t have to share how hard it was to create that first product and then convince others to buy it.  I certainly don’t have to share how much trouble I had.  No one is going to remember how many times I lost a match or sounded like an idiot on the mats.  Just practice.  In Jiu Jitsu we call it ‘getting your mat time.’

If I practice writing for 8 hours one day and all I have to show is one post, that’s ok.  Those 8 hours are not wasted.  Don’t EVER forget that.  Maybe tomorrow I can come up with a good post in 7 hours and 59 minutes.  Maybe every day it takes me 1 minute less.  But, if I am only going to put in 20 minutes a day, it will take me 24 days to get that 1 minute better.  And if I never practice I will never get better.  That’s the way things work.

Practice hard.  Practice often.  Get in your mat time.

Be exceptional,

JIM