“Champions keep playing until they get it right.”
― Billie Jean King
No one enjoys failing, period. It is embarrassing, frustrating, and discouraging–especially if what you are failing at is something that you desperately want to improve on. Even though the risk of failing comes with all of these negative emotions, it is important to continue to put effort into the things that you are bad at, as often as possible. While there are plenty of reasons why this is important, here are the four reasons why it’s essential to continue putting effort into the things that you aren’t good at.
1. Become “good” at something
The most obvious reason for continuing to do things that you know you aren’t good at is the adage, “practice makes perfect.” If you don’t continue to do the things that you are bad at, you’ll never become good at them. It’s embarrassing and frustrating when you’re bad at something, but it is perhaps even more embarrassing or frustrating if you know this and do nothing to improve.
2. See Change
Another strong reason for continuing to work on something you aren’t good at is that it places you in a unique position to see change within yourself. It’s easy to stay stagnant and just write off certain areas as “things you aren’t good at” and never have to encounter the hard work that goes into becoming good at them. However, by pushing forward and working hard to strengthen your weaknesses, you will be able to see a change in yourself that will inspire you in other areas of your life. This change will stick with you for the rest of your life, a constant reminder that if you put your mind to it, you can become good at most things.
3. Build confidence
At first, working on something you aren’t good at is frustrating. You will fail a few times, and as I said earlier this is embarrassing. But don’t let it discourage you. Most importantly though, if you can stick with working on something you are bad at and see yourself improve through continued work, your confidence in yourself will grow as a result. With stronger confidence in yourself, you will be able to pursue other things that you aren’t necessarily good at and see yourself learn and grow even more.
4. Understand that everyone starts at the beginning.
There’s this notion that there are people in this world that are naturally talented and have been so since the day they were born. While some people are more inclined to succeed in certain areas, even those “naturally talented” people have to put lots of time and effort into honing their craft and learning. Continuing to work at something that you aren’t necessarily good at will help remind you that everyone has a starting point, and from there it’s all about how much effort you want to extend. This is integral to success in everything–it’s important to learn that your success is not determined by external factors but it is determined by your effort and motivation. Eventually over time once you see improvement in yourself no matter how small you will learn that you can succeed at nearly anything. You learn not to limit yourself and your thinking.
Many of these reasons drive at the same point–the only way to become good at something is to be bad at it first, decide that you do not want to be bad at it anymore, and work hard to get good at it. No matter what gifts or talents you have, practice is the only way to get better at anything.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.