Perseverance

I create new things every day. I use the limited skills I have and make something new, piece by piece. Through perseverance and practice I’ve gotten better over time. I’m not perfect by any means. I’m working my way up into better things, expanding my skill set and training my brain. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish when you work at it every day. It doesn’t matter what it is, continuous effort and focus on improving will help build your skills over time.

Sometimes there are skills we just aren’t naturally proficient at. I cannot play a woodwind instrument. Any instrument that requires a reed (saxophone, clarinet, oboe) is beyond me. Drums I’m worse at. My tempo is pretty good but I can barely coordinate both my hands. Which is funny when you consider how much I write on a regular basis, how much wear and tear my keyboards get. I can’t shuffle cards. The whole thing with the thumbs and the brrrrt and there it is? Nope. Can’t do it. I’m crap at anything car related.

We have things we’re not good at but, if I put my mind to it and practiced every day, I could probably get reasonably good at any one of those things. I’m not proficient at them but I haven’t practiced and studied them either. I doubt I’d ever be a master mechanic, play in a philharmonic orchestra, or deal in Vegas. I doubt it but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t. My doubts override my abilities in those fields and I leave them to others. Literally, when I play cards other people shuffle. I’ve gotten to where I can shuffle a little but it’s not great.

Perseverance. Noun. “Steady persistence in a course of action especially in spite of difficulties.” I’m paraphrasing, of course. I write despite the fact that I don’t have a lot of time to. I work at things despite all the technical hurdles that crop up, the walls that jump out of nowhere. College work, art, music, filmmaking, writing, programming, engineering, mountain climbing. All these and more require perseverance to acquire greatness. All.

Gifts

I used to think I had a gift at something. Anything. I thought it would be music, or art, or languages, or martial arts, or any one of a number of things. I thought I’d have this excellent talent that I was born to do, something I was a born master at. Hell, I even thought it would be writing.

I was wrong.

Very few people have a gift. I was not. Music I was okay at after a lot of practice. Art I was okay at after a lot of practice. The same with languages, martial arts, writing. I wasn’t gifted but I was interested and I practiced for a while and got a moderate level of skill at a lot of things. I never thought to focus on something, to put all my energies into a single thing and work at perfecting it. I always assumed I was either going to be gifted at something or not be able to do it.

It’s all about the work. It’s about the practice. It’s about putting in the time and the dime. It’s about putting in the effort to become great. It’s about finding places you can perfect your craft and breaking the barriers you’ve found for yourself. You will find those barriers if you work at something long enough. Something that needs a lot of work, a lot of polish, a lot of effort. Use what you’re good at and develop those things you aren’t to a level you are satisfied with. You might find you get better when you strive harder on the things you aren’t so good at. The desire to round out your skills will show in the rest of your abilities.

I’m looking for ways to improve my writing. Places I can go, people I can talk to and meet with. I’m studying and practicing. It’s the only way I can master something. It took me a long time to realize I’m only ever going to be great at something I work at, something I study and practice and polish and perfect. I have to put in the time. I have to put in the effort. I have to find the things I need to work at and practice as much as I can. The only barrier to advancement is myself.

Some people are born with a gift and they use that gift constantly, smoothing out the rough edges and perfecting their craft. Others are born with a gift and give up on it for one reason or another and never get anywhere with it. Most of us are born with the ability to grow, to change, to learn and study and adapt and excel. Don’t assume that your lack of skill now will determine your skill later. Don’t let those little imperfections in your abilities keep you from doing what you want to do. You’re destined to do whatever you want to do. Keep at it, keep it fresh, practice and grow and learn. One of these days you’ll amaze yourself with what you’ve accomplished, what you can do when you start knowing nothing and end a master.

Confidence

Confidence is an unusual occurrence. People can naturally have it or you can build it up from nothing. It can stem from a lack of fear or an ease based on skill. It’s hard to fully quantify. There are tests for your intelligence, your memorization, your ability to implement things you know, but there’s no test for confidence.

Confidence is a belief in your abilities. It stems from an understanding of how correct you are when doing something. That’s all. You’ve heard the term “he exudes confidence”? That means he or she knows what they’re doing and knows they know what they’re doing. Confidence stems from knowledge, skill, and an understanding of the extent of your abilities. Different books and classes and seminars say they can help boost your confidence. While I think that’s admirable, I find it hard to believe. If confidence stems from skill and your understanding of your skill, one of two things are missing if you lack confidence in your abilities. Lack of skill or lack of understanding of said skill.

Lack of skill is the easier to remedy. Knowledge is your ally here. If you want confidence in your skills in something, learn all you can about it. Read everything you can online about it. Check out books from the library and read them cover to cover. Memorize all the facts you can. Study it in-depth. Find a way to practice, to put to use what you’re learning. Go over it again and again and again and again and again and again. Make it second nature. Ingrain it in your mind. Expand outwards from the core information and learn secondary and tertiary information. Take your practice to the next level. Get to the point that any question is easy to answer, any trouble is easily fixed. Master your skill and then learn how to adapt and change to create something new.

Understanding of your skill is more difficult to remedy. The best I can say in this area is master the skill to the point that it’s second nature, to where you barely even have to think about it.

I used to have a friend who doubted her own abilities, her skills, her intelligence. She was so doubtful in her abilities that she studied and practiced and went over everything over and over and over and over. She usually slept three or four hours a night because she was up so late studying, practicing, memorizing. She didn’t spend time with friends or watching movies or talking on the phone. She studied constantly. A few years later I saw her again and asked her how things were going. She was so far beyond anyone else that she barely studied or practiced. She was tutoring and mentoring others. She used her abilities to show others what they could do, her confidence driving her forward.

Confidence is an end result. It comes from knowing what you can do, knowing that you have the skills and the know-how to handle any situation that comes up. It comes from studying, from practice, from memory. My friend had no better or worse memory than anyone else I’ve ever known. She learned everything she could and that knowledge boosted her confidence.

If you’re having trouble with your confidence, learn. Study. Practice. Not just a little, either. Push yourself over and over and over. Memorize. Study. Find others and learn from them. Master the skills and you’ll find your confidence growing. Learn, study, practice, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. Good luck!