The Expert Beginner
Monday always seems like a great time to start something new, whether that be a diet, a new hobby, a new job, a new business, or even start building a new habit. A new week is a great opportunity for a fresh start.
I don’t know about you but when I start something new I generally start full of enthusiasm and excitement. The excitement of a new adventure is a huge motivator in the beginning and I will often throw myself all in not quite knowing what to expect, because why should I this is all new to me. However, often that motivating fresh start new adventure vibe can turn into a demotivator very quickly.
During the early stages of starting something new, let’s use getting promoted into a new job as the example here, we show up on our first day in our new role full of enthusiasm ready to get started. We often have big ideas and big goals, that we cannot wait to put into action there is no limit to our engagement. The fact we have been chosen for the promotion fills us with confidence that we are the person to get this job done. Now it might not happen right away but often in this circumstance we see engagement decline or waver after a few weeks, why is that? The want to do an excellent job is still there, the ambition to achieve our goals is still there but the enthusiasm and confidence is depleting.
Often when we start something new we forget about a two key ingredients in that process, growth and development. We show up to that new job expecting to be an expert on day one. We walk on to that gym floor for the first time expecting to have perfect form and high fitness levels, and it just doesn’t work like that. This can make us question whether we belong in that space and can stop us from making any steps forward because we are nervous to make the wrong step, so we make no steps instead. We want to be an expert beginner because we have forgotten how to just be a beginner.
In a world where we are constantly comparing ourselves to others it is not surprising that we walk into something new wanting to be an expert beginner. Not many people are confident enough to share the messy, scary, comfort zone stretching, growth stages, because it isn’t always pretty. Not many people talk about the mistakes they made and what they learned from them, they talk about the wins and growth because its much more desirable and comfortable to talk about our wins than it is to talk about our loses (I prefer the term lessons but loses works best here).
Next time you find yourself trying to be an expert beginner I want you to consider a few things:
If you find yourself comparing yourself to someone else and questioning your own capabilities against their established expertise, get to know them, find out about their growth journey, ask them what it was like to be a beginner.
You don’t know what you don’t know, do your research and get curious.
Try new things, experiment, and rather than seeing mistakes as a failure see them as a lesson. What can I learn from this?
Find a support network or mentor that you can go to for advice.
Be honest with your peers about how you are feeling and your progress, if you tell them everything is amazing to save face they will either give you no advice or the wrong advice, and the wrong advice could make things worse. Let people help you.
Document your growth journey and reflect on it next time you fall back into expert beginner mode.
One of the biggest challenges we face as adults is that we forget what it’s like to be a curious learner. We see learning and making mistakes as failing when we should see it as growing and building resilience. We need to get comfortable with not having all of the answers all of the time. Once we get comfortable with not knowing we can start learning.
