Thursday, June 6, 2013

Character. The temporary work-around for incompetence.

Have you ever felt like you’re in over your head?  I must admit, that’s how I’m feeling this morning.  There have been very few times in my life where I’ve recognized that I’m just not competent in a given area.  I’m facing a task at work right now that is in an area that I’ve just never worked before.  It stings to admit it, but I’m somewhat incompetent in that area.

This morning, I’m looking at it in light of two choices.  Choice 1: Shrug my shoulders and say, “I’m no good at this.”  Choice 2: Lean into it, learn all I can, keep pushing until I achieve an acceptable level of breakthrough. 


As I choose number 2, understand this.  Leaning into this and doing the very best I can is my job, as a member of the team I work on and as a follower of Jesus.  The question is not whether the work I’m doing on this particular project is in my sweet spot.  That conclusion is already drawn.  The question is what will I do, despite working on a project that falls outside of my sweet spot.  The question I’m answering right now is not one of talent, gifts or ability; it’s one of character. 

2 comments:

Charity said...

Josh Kaufman has some interesting thoughts on "The First 20 Hours" of learning something new. He wrote a book about rapid skill acquisition. The first 20 hours is a continuation of sorts of the whole 10,000 hour thing from Malcolm Gladwell that's been going around the past few years.

Jason Fitch said...

Thanks. I'll check it out.