Who do you think you are?
Why do I ask this? Because you won’t ever become someone you don’t think you are. Don’t think you are an artist? You won’t become one. Don’t think you are able to start or run a business? You won’t start or run one.
Transformation
So, how do you become something you are not? To answer that question you have to answer this one first, ‘how do you come to believe you can be that person?’ My first wife, Kathy, was never very confident about herself and her abilities. But by the time we had our three daughters and they were in or reaching school age, Kathy had received her teaching credential and had taught for a few years. She also had been around a number of families at our church who home schooled their kids for a number of years. The combination of the two experiences plus her own comfort with our children led her to believe she could home school our daughters, which we did for 3 years.
In other words, she had faith that she could get it done. She gained that faith by education, observation, and experience. I think those three elements are the keys to achieving your great goal.
- Education – In most, but not all, cases, learning is key to giving yourself the confidence that you can do or be something. It might be formal training or it might be you self-teaching online, but learning more and more about the area you want to explore always helps, if not for you, for those who you must persuade to trust you in a future endeavor.
- Observation – When you look around you, you can see things being achieved. How is that happening? What skills, behaviors, attitudes and connections to these achievers have? Being aware of what others have needed to succeed will help you do the same. While in much of life it is not good to compare yourself to others, it is good in other ways. This is one of them. Now, you may find that the comparison is unflattering to you. BUT then again, you might find it is favorable, or maybe it is irrelevant. The point is, do not be afraid to evaluate how you stack up to others in this endeavor. Self-criticism and self-knowledge of where you stand is essential to moving forward.
- Experience – Sometimes when we look at biographies of achievers it seems this step is skipped. For example, Cheryl Strayed walked the Pacific Coast Trail and wrote about it in her memoir ‘Wild’. She had ZERO experience hiking but she did it, right? Nope. She actually only did one day without experience. The second day she had the experience of the first day under her belt. Yes, to truly do it right she should have had a lot more experience, but to say she had none for the journey is to ignore what you learn along the way. So, yes it is possible to start with no experience. But it is impossible to get half way with none and certainly impossible to finish with none. The key is to be aware of the experience as it happens, to learn from it so you can immediately apply it, sometimes within minutes or hours of starting on a task.
These three things are what you need to become who you want to become and to do what you want to do.
So, start gathering them up and go for it!
Drawing and commentary © 2017 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Faith that the thing can be done is essential to any great achievement.” Quote by Thomas N. Carruther.
This original drawing or a print are available for purchase. Matte and frame are also available.