You Don’t See It

This writing is Certified Human

“Little by little, a little becomes a lot.” — C.M. Stunich

The Obstacle

We think we’re terrible at it
And we are.

We think we’re no good
Not progressing
Have no skill
Will never be good.

Only part of this is true
For now.

We don’t see the slow progress be
We only see the bad
That others are better.

We feel the frustration of learning something new
Failing
Struggling
Not being able to execute.

We feel no end in sight
Like it’s taking longer than it should
That we should already be good.

The desire to quit
Give up
Give in
Calls.

It would be easier
To stop
And not be bad.

We don’t see the progress
Because it’s slow motion
We’re too close to it.

The Gift and Opportunity

We’ve just started it
We’re learning
It’s the beginning.

We’ve forgotten what it’s like
To learn something new
To be bad at it.

Of course we’re bad
Everyone is in the beginning
We are bad
Until we’re not.

We’re not born with skills or knowledge
They are earned with time
Practice
Tolerance for frustration
Repetition, lots of repetition.

We have to be bad
Before we can be good.

Only those with tolerance for being bad
Will ever be good.

We can anticipate frustration
Understand that is the cost of admission
To becoming good.

We can remember
Watch children learn
Remember we were once bad at everything
We are now good at.

Others see our progress
Because they’re not as close to it
They don’t feel the desire to quit
They only see us getting better.

We are getting better if we’re working on it
We just don’t see it. 

The Practice of Self-Mastery

• Accept we are bad, for now
• Recalibrate frustration tolerance
• Keep practicing through the bad
• Become good

CHEAT CODE: ACCEPT→ RECALIBRATE → TOLERATE → PRACTICE THROUGH THE BAD → BECOME GOOD