We all love the idea of trying new things — that is, until we remember that we initially won't be good at them.
This past summer, I wanted to pick up some new hobbies to fill my near-endless free time. I tried to learn how to skateboard, how to sew and how to run. I didn't stick with a single one of them.
With all of these activities, I would get incredibly invested one week and stop pursuing them the next. I didn't fail to stick with these hobbies because I lost interest — far from it. I stopped trying because I was sick of being a beginner.
In spite of my embarrassing attempt to pick up new hobbies this summer, I tried again when I came back to school in August. This time, I put my experiences skateboarding, sewing and running behind me and threw myself head-first into rock climbing. I promised myself that this time would be different, that I would actually stick with it even when I inevitably began to loathe being a beginner once more.
Similarly to all of the other hobbies I had pursued up to that point, I was very consistent when I started. During my first week, I went to the climbing gym nearly every day that it was open. I failed the same climb for days on end and my patience began to wear thin.
Despite this, I kept trying. I eventually surmounted the wall after slowly yet consistently building up grip strength and climbing technique during my sessions. I felt like I had bested the wall, and I came back just as consistently the following week and the week after that to best it again.
I didn't let being a newbie bother me this time. In all honesty, I came to enjoy it.
It makes sense why people overwhelmingly stick to things that they're good at. It is much easier to do something you have mastered than struggle to reach mastery in something new. Don't get me wrong, there is absolutely merit in perfecting something that you are already good at, but you must remember that anything worth doing will be hard.
Although I learned to appreciate being a beginner, I can still admit that being bad at something isn't fun; in fact, it usually sucks. While this is often the case, it doesn't have to be this way. Being a beginner can be an incredibly rewarding experience, you may just need to shift your mindset to see it as such.
