The Story

I recently took a 5-week whitewater kayaking course. Kayaking is a blast. It can be very dangerous (despite what Into the Wild might have you think), but it’s complete and total fun and exhilaration once you get the hang of it. Nothing beats spending a day on a wild and scenic river. You’re peaceful, relaxed, and quiet one minute and the next minute, adrenaline is screaming through your veins while you’re screaming through a rapid. On the first few trips, though, we (the students) kept running into everything. That’s to be expected when you don’t even really know how to paddle straight in moving water, but even once we got the hang of that we still kept running into stuff.

The instructor would tell us, “There’s a big rock on river right. Be sure to squeeze left of it, or you’ll get stuck.” So we’d start paddling down the rapid, spot the big rock they told us about and try our best to squeeze to the left of it. Then we’d run smack into it. Almost every time. No matter how hard we tried to avoid things, we kept running into them. Then they told us a secret, and after that I didn’t run into the big rocks anymore (that’s not to say I didn’t flip or take terrible lines down the rapids. I did. But I didn’t run into anything they told us to look out for).

The secret didn’t involve any paddling trick, some weight-shifting maneuver, or how to lean the right way (all of which are actually important). The trick they told us was this:

Quit looking at the rock. If you look at the rock, you’ll hit it. Know the rock is there, but instead of looking at it, look where it is you want to go instead. If you look where you want to go, you’ll go there, and you won’t hit the rock.

They were right. We were concentrating so hard on the rock that we unconsciously steered the boat right for it. The harder we tried to avoid the rock, the more likely we were to run into it. Once I stopped looking at the rock and focused my attention on where I wanted to go, my skill improved dramatically, and I had a lot more fun. And I stopped running into the stuff they told us to look out for. Finally I was going where I was trying to go instead of getting stuck on obstacles.

The Moral

I think the parallels to life are pretty obvious. When you’re working at something — be it a business, school, a hobby, or a personal goal — there will be big rocks that you’ll have to avoid. The key is to not look at them, not dwell on them. If you spend your time thinking about them, you’ll run right into them. Instead, just know they’re there. You don’t want to be oblivious to them, but don’t dwell on them.

Focus your attention on where you want to go, and you’ll stop running into the obstacles and start moving in the right direction. You’ll get a lot better at whatever it is you’re doing, and you’ll have a heck of a lot more fun, too. I guarantee it.

Got a good story about running into stuff (metaphorically or not)? Like to kayak? Have other advice? I’d love to hear about it! Just leave a comment below.

There are a ton of things you can choose to do, and I can’t give you a formula on how to be an expert at all of them (actually almost any of them). But, there are a few things you always do when starting out, and some ways to keep improving that apply to almost everything. I’m just trying to get you pointed in the right direction, hand you a map, and maybe help you bum a ride.

The number one way to get better at something is to DO IT!

Besides that, there are a couple of ways to get better at something:

1. Learn about it. How can you get great at something if you don’t know anything about it? You will learn a lot by doing, but there are some things you can’t teach yourself (or won’t know to teach yourself).
2. Get cultured. Whatever it is you’ve chosen to do, there’s most likely (read: most certainly) someone else who’s doing it too. In fact, there are probably a lot of people doing it too. Every activity, no matter its popularity, has a community, and this community has its own culture. This culture is invaluable for quickly getting yourself up to speed (and making great friends).

The culture surrounding an activity is a fantastic way to dive in and get your mind tuned to what it is you’re trying to do. The best way to get involved in the culture is to go to events (be they jams, races, etc…) and joining clubs. Any time and place you can find a group of people interested in the same thing is a great time and place to start getting cultured.

Mostly, though, I want to discuss where to find knowledge. You’ve got two main sources of information for new topics (besides people themselves): books and the internet. Books are usually more professional but can be pricey, while the internet makes no guarantee of quality but it’s (mostly) free, and there is a ton of great information.

Books are the classic way to learn about things. You’ve probably used books to learn about things your whole life, and there’s a reason for that. They’re great! They contain tons of information, they’re well-organized, and they’re professional. If you’re willing to spend a little money, you can get great information from a book. Plus, there’s something you just don’t get from looking at a screen that you do with a book, where you are literally holding knowledge in your hands.

The best place to get books about anything is Amazon. They literally have books on every topic you can think of. Want to paint, play banjo, play tennis, learn to program computers, run a marathon, or invest in stocks, or learn to do everything? Amazon’s got you covered. A quick search should turn up a great list of books.

There’s also the For Dummies series that covers a lot of common topics and is very good.

The internet is a phenomenal resource. There is an immense amount of information at your fingertips if you know where to look. Where might that be, you ask? List time!

• Wikipedia The online free encyclopedia contains pages about literally everything you could wonder about, and then some. Check the bottom of the pages for links to external sites to dig deeper.
• Google Google knows everything. If there is knowledge on the internet, you can find it with Google. I mean it. Everything.
• Forums Do a google search for “[insert topic here] AND forum” and you’ll find the online hangouts for the community you’re interested in. People post questions, get answers, complain, praise, and generally talk about whatever it is you’re trying to learn.
• Blogs Blogs are fast becoming great authoritative sources of information about niche topics. There are several great places to search for blogs about specific topics, in addition to appending “blog” to any Google query, but the best way to discover new blogs on a topic is to follow links in the blogs’ “blogrolls”. These are usually the author’s favorite blogs, and usually lead to great stuff. Within 2 levels or so into this “link network”, you’ll probably know about all the major blogs in your niche. Subscribe to their feeds to get great information on a regular basis.
• Social Networks A big trend on the internet is social networks that target niche interests. Find one in your topic area, and you’ll have a great network of people to learn from.
• Social Bookmarking Sites These are sites where users submit links to various things that usually get voted on. Search one for your topic. Often, the most popular posts are mega-lists of resources on a certain topic. The best ones are: del.icio.us, Digg, and Reddit. del.icio.us is likely to contain a broad range of interests, whereas Digg and Reddit will be slanted toward technology topics.
• EDIT: MIT OpenCourseware is a phenomenal place to learn about new things. MIT has published a large amount of free lecture notes, exams, and videos for a lot of the classes they teach. It’s like going to MIT from home, and not having to worry about passing! If what you want to learn is something they teach, you really can’t beat this content, besides actually enrolling at MIT. I can’t believe I left this out when I first posted this, but now you know!

Using books and the internet, you can learn just about everything there is to know about whatever you’re trying to learn. But, again, the best way to get good at something is to do it, do it some more, then do it until you dream about it.

Did I forget any great places to get information? Are there better ways to start getting great? Want to get something off your mind? Let me know in the comments.

Here’s to being great!

Before we go any further, let’s clear up the definition a little bit. From just the sound of the phrase, it may seem like I am suggesting spending every spare moment training, practicing, or otherwise pro-actively working at something. That’s not the case. Constantly improving does not mean you can’t take time to hang out with friends, play video games, watch movies, or just otherwise slug it. You can and should! Heck, look above. Right on this very page I call myself a “relaxation connoisseur”. I don’t mean you have to spend every waking minute working. What I mean is this:

There should never be a moment in your life when you don’t have at least one worthwhile thing you are trying to make yourself great at.

Note the emphasis there. If you are trying to be great at whatever you’ve chosen, you’re guaranteed to be putting full effort into it, and getting the most you can back out of it.

There are lots of reasons to be in a state of constant improvement:

• The effort and passion you put into getting great at one thing will automatically raise the level of effort and passion you put into everything else in your life. That’s a free bonus. It’ll just happen. Once you begin really going after something, that passion and focus will spill over into the rest of the things you do. It’s a mindset. You couldn’t stop it from happening if you wanted.
• Your life will be more fulfilling. If you are dedicated to gaining this new skill, you should be making short-term goals to measure your progress. Each time you achieve one of these goals, you’ll feel great, and looking back to see how far you’ve come provides an amazing sense of accomplishment. You’ll soon begin to feel like you can do anything, which leads me to the next reason…
• You’ll realize you can do anything. Once you see yourself succeed again and again by your own merit and hard work (and succeed you will, I promise. Just don’t give up.) you’ll quickly begin to realize that there is nothing, absolutely nothing you can’t do if you put your mind to it. It sounds cliché, but trust me, it’s the absolute truth. A year and a half ago, I couldn’t run 3 miles without stopping. Now I run ultramarathons for kicks. And you can too, if that’s what you want to do!
• You’ll enjoy it! Phrases like “hard work” make it seem like you’ll be toiling away under the oppressive whip of self-improvement, but it’s not so! Learning new things and becoming great at them is a blast. Chances are, if you’ve chosen something to pursue, you like it and you’ll only start liking it more. Plus, if you take the time every once in a while to reflect on all you’ve done and accomplished, you’ll realize that not only are you be for your efforts, you’ve had a great time and made fantastic memories along the way.

At some point, you’ll get interested in something else, and you’ll find you’ve switched gears and are focusing a lot of energy on that. Great! That’s exactly what should happen. As you repeat this cycle of learning new things, after a while you’ll have compiled quite the arsenal of skills and talents, built up a huge new group of great memories and stories, and met tons of interesting people. Those last 2 alone are worth the effort and work you’ll put in.

Hopefully, I’ve now convinced you that it’s worth your time to spend time really putting effort into becoming great at something. But what should that be?

It can be just about anything! The important thing is to pick something and get started. Quit putting it off.

Let’s clear up one more thing here before we move on. You can choose almost anything you want, and you will benefit from the effort you put into it, but some things are inherently better than others. For instance, learning to play guitar or photograph wildlife is going to enhance your life much more than learning how to best nap on the couch. You don’t have to choose something traditional, but you should choose something that’s actually going to make you and your life better.

Now, for some things to choose from, if you don’t already have 100 ideas in the back of your head.

• Sports are fantastic things to focus on. They’ll get you active, and get you working out your body and not just your mind. But that’s not all. Exercising physically actually helps your mental health as well. I even find I think more clearly on the days when I get to exercise in the morning. Along with getting in shape, sports will help you tone down and look great, which is a big confidence booster.
• Traditional Art, in all its forms will enhance your mental acuteness and open up your mind to creativity. Music, painting, sculpting, etc… are just the surface. There are thousands of ways to express yourself artistically and creatively. Find one that interests you.
• Photography is a fantastic way to bring out your artistic or journalistic side and have some fun while you’re at it. With the cost of high-quality cameras dropping, it’s easier than ever to get started.
• Computer skills are a great thing to have in this day and age. Particularly programming skills will help you to think more clearly and logically. Once you “learn to think” you’ll find that you can apply the skills you learned in the rest of your life – making decisions clearer and helping you to think logically. Not only that, you will have added a very marketable skillset to your resumé. The computer industry is red hot.

There are plenty of other things you can learn to do, but the most important thing is just pick something! Choose something you’re interested in or you think you’ll enjoy. If it turns out it’s not for you, you’ll realize it quickly and you can pick something else.

Don’t put it off. If you don’t have something in your life you are actively striving to be great at, find something now. You’ll find yourself enjoying the rest of your life more, you’ll be happier and more productive, and you’ll lead a much more fulfilling life than if you simply drift through existence.

In the next article, we’ll discuss how to go about getting better at something once you’ve picked it out and decided you are ready to dominate it. Everything you need to excel is easily available to you, and a lot of it is free, if you know where to look. Stay tuned!

Cheers! A better life awaits.