Being Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable -- What You Need to Know About Being a Beginner

Practice makes perfect.

That's how the saying goes, right? Time and time again, from a very young age, we are told that if we just put in enough work, we will eventually achieve perfection.

Well, excuse my language, but that's a bunch of bullsh*t. Perfection is, first of all, not a real thing, and second of all, not the actual goal. We shouldn't ever aim to be perfect, but to be a better version of ourselves today than we were yesterday.

When you're starting something new, it's easy to talk yourself out of giving it a real shot because, well, you're not perfect. All the other people who do this thing are amazing at it and you, quite frankly, suck, so why even bother? The answer is simple:

The only way to get better at something is to keep doing it. 

Annoying, I know. Nobody likes doing something that they're not good at. It's highly tempting, and far more satisfying, to stay away from this new thing and stick to what you're good at. Then you'd have to ask yourself this question, though: 

Are you happy with where you are?

I don't just mean mildly content. I mean excited-to-wake-up-in-the-morning, OMFG-my-life-is-so-amazing-and-I-wouldn't-change-anything-about-it kind of happy. Of course, I exaggerate for effect, but I want you to seriously ponder the level of happiness in your life right now. If you're honest with yourself, you thought about starting something new because you wanted a change, and you're only trying to convince yourself that your life is "just fine" now because making that change is harder than you'd like it to be. 

Follow your first intuition. You wanted a change, you did something about it. Remember that we are all bad a new things. Sure, there are unicorns who are inherently talented and wildly successful at things that they just started doing, but us mere mortals have a learning curve. The only way to conquer it is to stay on it. Don't give up because you're not amazing at it yet. It will take real commitment, consistency, and then TIME....probably lots of it...but you will get better at it. 

Every person that you look up to right now, athletes, movie stars, musicians, entrepreneurs...they all were beginners at one point. The only difference between us and them is time. 

Whatever your "thing" is, keep doing it, and stay focused on progress, never perfection.