A Beginners Guide to Beginning to Begin
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” — J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
Recently I was offered an incredible opportunity to work and learn at one of the top tech companies in the UK. A dream come true for me, and the result of a lot of hard work and personal sacrifices. Mission complete then? No. My mission has just begun again and will continue to begin again and again. It sounds a bit like Groundhog Day, but let me explain.
If Only
I’m a beginner, but it wasn’t always this way. I spent a lot of my adult life saying “if only I’d done….” or “I wish I could…”, it wasn’t helpful and worked only to make my current situation less enjoyable. I turned down opportunities and justified it to myself the best I could. Think about it, how many times do you hear someone saying, “I’d love to take a dancing class” or “I’d love to learn to play the guitar”? Well what’s stopping you? A quick google search and a phone call is all that would take. When you really think about it, usually what that person is actually saying is “I wish I could already play the guitar” or “I wish I was a great dancer”.
When presented with viable, sometimes simple solutions to our hopes and dreams, too often our brain kicks into some sort of defence mode, I know mine does. “That’ll be too hard”, “The teacher will think I’m stupid” or “People might laugh at me” are the type of thoughts that run through our head and you end up trying to appease or compromise with your own anxiety by thinking or saying “Maybe after Christmas I’ll look into that” or “I’ve not got the time for it”. Our brains, now no longer fearing the unknown, begin to relax and we usually forget about playing the stupid guitar anyway.
Begin
You have to take that first step. You have to put a foot into the unknown. You have to begin to begin, it’s the only way around it. Stop compromising with yourself and start reasoning with yourself. Ask yourself what is it about playing the guitar or coding or being a great dancer that you desire the most? Do you want to impress people? earn more money? lose some weight? or dance in a competition? Find out what it is that motivates you and use it to your advantage. You need to have a goal, something to work towards and something that you can measure. Set yourself smaller goals within that larger goal and write them down or save a note in you phone. Tell people your goals, tell them what you are going to do. Who knows, maybe someone, inspired by your new found confidence will say “You know what, I’’m going to come with you”. Start small, you’re not going to become the next Jimmy Hendrix over night and you’re probably not going to be coaching any celebs on Strictly Come Dancing, but instead, see yourself for what you are; A BEGINNER. Take pride in your new status and reward yourself.
Opportunity
You know what’s so great about learning a new skill or trying to improve yourself? It’s HARD! and so it should be. Why is something being hard a positive? because it’s MEANINGFUL, and not just to you, other people around you will comment, some good, some bad. “How can you be bothered with all that” or “That’s too hard for me” will become phrases you’ll hear, BUT there will be some voices who will say, “Wow! That’s amazing… Well done”. Those ones feel good, enjoy them. What feels even better is when someone, once a beginner themselves says, “I know how hard that was, here let me help you”. Once you take that step into the unknown, you will be amazed at just how many people are willing to help you and better yet, would LOVE to see you succeed. They know how hard beginning can be and they’ll want to make it easier; something you should do for others once you’ve found your footing.
Success and Failure
You’re going to make A LOT of mistakes, why wouldn’t you? Even the best in the industry, in any field make mistakes, but you’re going to use those mistakes as lessons on how to succeed. Your process of learning a particular skill will look something like this:
wrong - wrong - wrong - right - wrong - wrong - right - wrong - right - right right - wrong…
…and so on and so on. Each of those little rights become like little victories. Those little wrongs just make those little right-victories all the more sweet. You’ll start to feel proud of yourself, you’ll look back at previous mistakes and laugh at how much of a beginner you were, then you’ll start to gain confidence. Confidence is infectious, but use it wisely. Be modest. Be honest about how little you knew and how much you’ve still to learn.
Begin Again
Never stop beginning. Begin something harder. Begin something new. Begin meeting people like you. Join an online community, write a blog, share your experiences. Start to see beginning as winning.
There’s no limit to what you can achieve if you just take those first steps into the unknown. Ignore those unhelpful people that want to pull you back and use those helpful others to guide you. Take opportunities, say YES when they arise, in spite your fear, and do your best help others if and when you can.
Everyone of us can change their life for the better, all you have to do is BEGIN.
