I Can't Ski-Jump Because I Can't Ski

I constantly watch people do cool things that take skill and think “Man I can’t do that. I wish I could do that.” But here’s the thing we often forget. That person has learnt that skill, and worked hard on it over a long period of time to get as good as they are. The magnificent Brené Brown talks about how at the start of learning something, there’s a gap between our taste and our ability. We’re not yet able to make the music that we love to listen to. She says that this is the place we’re a lot of people stop trying. It seems unachievable because there’s such a long way to go. We forget though, as we learn and practice the skill, that gap slowly closes and we get closer and closer to being as good as we want to be.

I used to learn guitar for about two years when I was in high school. I love playing the guitar, but I didn’t feel like I was getting very good at it. I also had a bunch of dudes in my class who were really good and it felt shitty when I had to get up and play in front of them with way less skill. I still own three guitars though, and whenever anyone sees them and asks if I play, my answer tends to be “a tiny bit, really badly”. And that’s pretty true. But that’s because in the last ten years I’ve picked up my guitar maybe three times a year (until this year, yay!).

Sadly for a procrastinator and sleep-lover like me, if we’re going to be good at something we have to actually learn how to do it, and be okay with being bad at it at the start. I can’t run 5km every day like some people I know because I never ever go for runs. I can’t play the piano because I never get around to learning to play the piano. I can’t ski-jump because I can’t ski, or at least haven’t since I was about twelve. Get one of those milo-kid vests and learn to ski down a hill first, then do the flipping in the air part.