It doesn’t matter how good it is, just make it
While you’re busy creating an app no one will use, writing an article no one will read, or painting a picture no one will see most people are passively living life. They may look up from their distractions just long enough to give you some words of discouragement. If your piece doesn’t resonate with them immediately they may be quick to dismiss it, questioning your commitment to something so foreign to them.
But while you may receive criticism or no feedback at all, you are still practicing. You are putting yourself and your work out there. You are sharing your gift with the world, and therefore growing with it. Not passively watching your life tick by. You are a creator.
Know that it is okay to make mistakes.
It is okay to create something that doesn’t work, is hard to read, or looks ugly. The important thing is that you are creating, and that you keep creating. Every time you create something you are getting a little bit better at your craft. It may be an unnoticeable improvement, but its there.
Over time your improvements add up, and then they begin to compound. Much like compounding interest, progress can seem slow at first but over time your skills improve by leaps and bounds. As you become more comfortable with your craft, and begin to take more chances, you increase your skill in greater intervals.
It takes patience and commitment to continually learn something.
Continual learning is your ticket in the door, but breaking out of your comfort zone is your way past the crowd. It takes bravery to get out of your comfort zone and try new things in your field. But it is precisely the type of practice which is uncomfortable that leads to leaps in progress.
We must get out of our comfort zone in order to grow.
Just like our physical muscles during strenuous exercise, injured so that they may be repaired stronger than before, our skills must be brought to a level of discomfort during practice. We must choose to take risks, embrace challenges, and push ourselves past the comfort zone in order to grow. This applies to anything we do.
You can practice all you want, even for the magical 10,000 hours, but if the practice never takes you out of the comfort zone you won’t go far. Repeating the exact same thing over and over isn’t going to do so much for your overall skill as it will for your ability to accomplish that specific thing.
So break out, take chances, get uncomfortable and you will experience growth.
