How Being “Bad” at Something Can be a Superpower
“If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.”
Last week I took another pottery class. I started throwing pottery about a year ago. And while I wish I could say my skills have improved, the painstaking patience it takes to sit at the wheel really challenges me. But I do it anyway. Why? Because, as I once read:
If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.
I’ve taken that concept to heart and applied it to all aspects of my life. If I'm the best at anything–no matter where I am–something’s got to change.
I have been blessed to work in careers where I’m surrounded by brilliant colleagues who energize, inspire, and challenge me to grow and achieve my personal best. And now, even outside of the workplace, I actively seek that sort of inspiration (and discomfort).
In fact, I’ve taken the adage above and extended it so far that I actively seek activities where I am the WORST in the room. Sounds crazy, right? Maybe it is. But there is a strange and wonderful freedom in releasing yourself from the pressure to be the best. Failure simply means you’ve pushed yourself to your limit and beyond.
Here’s why I intentionally seek out experiences that stretch me.
They keep me humble. New experiences remind you not to take yourself too seriously and to have empathy for others who are still learning. Best of all, being “bad” at something—and I mean really terrible—forces you to laugh at yourself, which is important to cultivating resilience in all areas of life (a valuable life skill, if you ask me!).
I love the challenge of a steep learning curve. Nothing is more gratifying than looking back and seeing just how far you’ve come. The worse you are at something, the more room there is for improvement!
Last, novel experiences provide continuous opportunities for growth. Being bad at something means having a genuine chance to learn and grow. And nothing, in my opinion, is better than putting yourself on a continuous path of personal development. It means you have the opportunity to be a little bit better each day. (And wouldn’t the world be a much better place if we all had a growth mindset?)
Rather than stick to the things I’m excellent at, I purposefully put myself in situations that make me uncomfortable. From Pilates to two-steppin’, to pottery classes, these challenges keep me humble, keep me hungry, and remind me that it’s never too late to learn something new!
Get the Degree Book Challenge:
My challenge for you this week is to try something new or put yourself in a situation that makes you a little uncomfortable. At best, you’ll learn something. And at worst, you’ll have a story you can laugh about later.
