Vignette #2 Being less shit

This is a series of vignettes based on my passion, martial arts and how it seeps into everything I do. I try to link principles to certain day-to-day situations that you might find interesting.
I am not trying to position myself as a “mister know it all”, and if you think it is the case, I am not going to hire a lawyer to defend my biases vs yours.

I was once seating in a room at an event with my co-panellists and the moderator, going over the rundown of the questions and who wanted to answer them. I was cool as a cucumber and as I saw the moderator being a bit stressed, I told him that we were going to have fun and everything will be fine. I cracked jokes, showed him my crazy socks, whatever…I tried to make him feel a bit more relaxed.

He was a senior guy, ex CTO of a prominent bank, he took me aside and said to me: I am not as good as you, you’re a natural (or something like that…). This came out of my mouth: “I am not good or trying to get better, I am trying to be less shit than last time”.

I continued: “I suck, I forget stuff, I say “hmm, you know, actually” too much, I speak too fast, I am too excited etc. but you know nobody knows what I know or don’t know and no-one cares.”

I don’t know if what I said relaxed him but it made me think…

In martial arts, perfection is an ego-trip: there is always someone faster, stronger, quicker and whilst you may improve, everybody does and some at a faster rate than you.

Your master or teacher is a professional in the sense that his or her teaching is the main activity. They spend a lot of hours per day teaching, going over the same details, spotting and correcting mistakes in their students, and they have been practising all their life.

You cannot compete with them.

 Becoming better is a fallacy that makes us feel better, it’s the ego sugar-coating the hard work and devotion that is needed to get to a decent level of proficiency.

 As everyone moves further, you can get stuck with not “getting better”, with not adding more techniques, knowledge to your arsenal…

Getting “less shit” than yesterday is about enjoying the journey, not comparing with anyone. It is about shedding and not adding…It is the proverbial onion that peels to reveal hidden gems of knowledge and maturity.