Have You Tried Being the Worst at Something?

I realize now that I am good at many things. But for a lot of years especially when I was much younger, I thought I was the worst at so much of the important stuff.

In high school, there are two skills that are emphasized: playing sports and being socially cool. I was bad at both. When I finally found a sport, I could play (floor hockey), I accidentally scored the winning goal in the other team’s net!

Fast forward to 2001, when I started karate. It was a way to do a physical activity with my oldest son. After he went to college and dropped out, I continued now for 19 years. Although I have slowly progressed in this art, out of the 100 adults at the school, I am probably one of the worst at it. There are a variety of reasons for this: I am not physically flexible, I often practice from a place of fear, and I think too much about what I am doing.

But sucking at an activity does have its advantages. There is a certain freedom and fun to it. The expectations of myself are low so when I can do something even decently, it can be a thrill!

I can also stop competing with others since I am so far behind their skill. It a competitive world, this can come as somewhat of a relief. I am left to only compete with myself and yesterday.

It is also a place where I am not expected to be a leader like in the small business world. That alone makes it freeing and relaxing. Here is a place I can say “I don’t remember” or “I don’t know” or “I am having trouble with that”. Here is a place where I can be a student and someone else can be the teacher.

Being the worst at something is a problem for a lot of us. As we grow older, we stop trying out new things because we don’t want to risk being bad at it.

We get comfortable in the things that we are good at to feed our self-confidence and support our aging ego. But this is a trap; It doesn’t allow us to have fun, learn and be a beginner again at something new. It can keep us inside a very limiting box.

I encourage you no matter your age to try something new….and be courageous enough to suck at it.