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Start by doing it badly! Don’t wait!

Why do we get ideas?

We all have a potential future self which would possibly be everything that we could be and it manifests itself, moment to moment in our present life by making us interested in certain ideas.

If we happen to notice our life over a long enough frame of time, we will begin to notice patterns of experiences that repeat themselves, taking us closer to our future selves. These ideas that we are interested in guide us along the path that leads us to maximal personal development. It probably sounds like a metaphysical or mystical idea but it’s not. It’s a biological one!

At the start, we will lack clarity!

Let’s call it “the call to adventure” and this call to adventure takes us to all sorts of places. But the problem with the call to adventure is that we know nothing about it. We could be interested in ideas that are presently unclear, warped, and lacking definition.

In this lack of clarity, we stumble through the process like a student. But we need to remember that the student is the precursor to the master. We have to first be a student in order to progress and be a master. What’s interesting is that despite the fact that we are just a student, we are still supposed to go on that adventure, and then when we are capable of learning enough as a consequence of the adventure, we straighten ourself across time. 

Start by doing it badly!

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It will seem like an absurd idea!

Let’s imagine that something glimmers before us, it’s a new idea dawning, and we are paralyzed, wondering whether we should pursue it, thinking that it’s probably an absurd idea. And in all the truth, of course, it’s an absurd idea. Any idea at the start is absurd and the probability of getting it right as we set on our adventure is zero. It’s just not going to happen.

Why do it then?

Alternatively, we could wait around until we get the right idea, which many people tend to do and end up being 40 years old waiting around for that brilliant idea to spark in them. Which is not a great plan, why? because even if the perfect opportunity manifested itself in front of us, in our incomplete and unprepared form, the probability that we would recognize it as such is nil.

Related Read: Lessons from the Covid Times

Now what we can do is take these tentative steps towards our destiny and we can assume that we will do it badly. And that’s really useful because then there would be no need to be discouraged. After all, anyone can do it badly. The point here is that it is way better to do it badly than to not do it at all. And it’s a whole lot better than crumbling away in inaction at home.

You can’t edit a blank page

— Jodi Picoult

As we begin to make progress!

So we start moving on our path and think that we are heading towards your goal. And as we go in that direction, we make a little progress and begin to view the world a little differently as a result of having made that progress. The goal in front of us is going to have shifted, become more distinctive. And now because we have become very good at specifying it, to begin with, and now that we are a little sharper and more focused than we were, it’s going to reveal itself with a greater accuracy to us.

Start by doing it badly!

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At some point, we would need to readjust our course and now we might think it’s a waste of time having come this far and having to readjust the course. But it is not because now we are now a whole lot farther than where we would have stayed had we waited.

A lot of times we are going to overshoot our destined path/goals. It’s fine. Even if we don’t learn what we should do, we do learn what we shouldn’t. And learning what we shouldn’t do is complimentary to learning what we should. That’s one reason why having goals help us get rid of counterproductive behaviors. It’s rather meaningless and troublesome to party hard when we have to go for a run in the morning.

Exchange perfectionism for progress.

What’s good about it is that as we keep moving, the degree to which we overshoot begins to decline. So, it’s perfectly fine to wander around rather naively before we calibrate our destination to a greater accuracy.

Making room for failures.

Let’s suppose we are in a situation and we are not doing too badly and we aim to improve it and the first step that we take is a complete catastrophe. Part of the reason that we don’t become successful is that we don’t understand that it’s a process that is punctuated by intermittent failures or worse even catastrophes. The collapses are a part of the course to success. We fail but it’s not an indication that we have failed, it’s an indication that it’s a really hard process!

If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.

-Thomas J. Watson

The silver lining!

The fact that we are full of faults doesn’t mean that we cannot learn! Almost all of what we do is going to be imperfect and that’s alright. It doesn’t matter that it’s imperfect, it just matters that we do it and move forward! And that’s really positive news because we can do it, anyone can do it badly. And that is where we need to start. 

Start by doing it badly, don’t wait!

A small progress is often better than no progress.

We always have an idea in our head of the final, “complete” outcome of whatever we are trying. A novel. An under-construction house. Learning how to play guitar.

But actually, none of these outcomes will be achieved perfectly. For all of these activities, simply trying at all would be an improvement.

A ten-minute run is better than no run. An imperfect short story that exists is better than a perfect one that doesn’t. A cobbled-together plate of leftovers is better than no dinner. A half-cleaned room is better than a completely messy one.

…need we go on? If we are struggling to get started on something that feels big and unachievable, we need to ask ourselves if even the smallest possible version would be better than nothing. In a choice between a perfect reality that doesn’t exist and an imperfect one that does, clearly, there’s only ever one winner.

Being bad is the first step to becoming good.

Almost all skills require a willingness to be bad at it first. We can’t become a master piano player without being a terrible one first.

Of course, some things do require expertise. Obviously, brain surgery, plumbing, medicine, flying planes, and building skyscrapers are all activities which require an extremely high standard before we even begin. This is why people studying these kinds of skills have special ways to train and practices to adhere to while they’re learning.

When our actions have real-world consequences, we need to be careful.

But as long as nothing is on the line, let go of the outcome, and go for it.

What can we do badly today?

Is there an activity we feel drawn to, or a project we’ve been putting off, or even just a day-to-day chore that we never seem to get done?

We need to ask ourselves these questions:

• Would doing it a bit be better than not doing it at all? If so, let’s go do it—a bit!
• Are we willing to be bad at it now, if it means getting better at it later?

The only truly important question is “is anything really on the line if we do it imperfectly? Really?!” 

If our answer yes, then our hesitation is well-justified. If not, we shouldn’t let imperfection hold us back. 

Personally, I’ve never done anything perfect in my life at the start. I am sure not many have either!

Let’s do something badly today… and then, maybe, do it better tomorrow. And repeat the process until we are decently good at it!

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So, throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain

Also Read: What’s Your Game?

Your Turn!

What could you do badly today that would help you out tomorrow? Has a bad job ever turned into a good job for you? Share with us in the comments!

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Start by doing it badly!