The Standard Pace is for Chumps

Way too often, I hear people saying they can’t do something until they’ve taken the course, or gotten certified, or gone back to grad school.

What a bunch of bullshit. Unless you’re doing something that risks hurting someone if not done properly… like, oh i don’t know, medicine or surgery or chiropractic spine cracking, then odds are you don’t need to wait.

If you’re anything like me, the thought of going to do a 6 week course before being able to make ceramics (real story of how I skipped this coming below) is as painful as having to wait until Christmas to unwrap presents.

Now, as a (mostly) fully functioning adult, I have Amazon Prime. Which means I don’t have to wait until Christmas for presents.

By the same line of thinking, I didn’t want to wait when I was faced with having to complete a 6 week course before I can make ceramics.

I recently signed up for a 2 hours ceramics class to be an Artist’s Date for me. Before the class, I saw on the studio’s website that they offer monthly studio memberships for people who either a) have experience with ceramics, or b) complete their 6 week course. I had neither (well kind of, more on that later), and there’s no way I was going to wait 6 weeks to be able to go play with some clay.

So what did I do? I binged YouTube for a couple days leading up to the 2 hour class. (I’ve done this in the past before a SCUBA course, Freediving course, blacksmithing class, and more). Of course, hands on experience is truly the best way to learn… but it massively helps to at least show up with a head start on the knowledge part of it.

Back to pottery… I show up, work my charm on the clay and throw some decent looking pots - thanks partially to my video based learning.

The instructor that day asked me if I had done pottery before and obviously I said “yes.” (I threw on a wheel one time when I was 13 at summer camp in Vermont.) And guess what, she then gave me the OK to join the studio membership because she deemed that my pottery skills were good enough to skip the 6 week course!

Lesson Learned:?as Derek Sivers says,?“the standard pace is for chumps”.?There are so many resources available now to learn things and speed up the process to get to the part where you actually DO the thing.

The thought that you need to have a certification or course is more often than not a?limiting belief?that is covering up some inner fear or perceived lack of safety in actually doing the thing you want to do.

So I say, take a good look at your inner monologue and the reasons you are claiming to not be able to do the thing you want to do.

Then go do it.

- Julian

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