Self Confidence & Skill

Skill and the Shoelace

Have you ever paid attention to what you do during the process of tying a shoelace? If you haven’t, then go try it now and see what you notice.

What you will notice is that it is a complex process requiring harmony in your hand movements and interaction between both hands and between the different fingers; yet you do it in seconds without facing any trouble and you may even be talking to someone else or watching television while doing it.

Why You Think You Cannot Do Other Tasks

There are many other complex tasks that you do on a regular basis without paying any attention to their complexity, like typing on the keyboard, driving your car or doing you daily chores and routine work.

If you have the ability to do these complex tasks while doing something else, like talking, at the same time, why then can’t do some other things like playing football or basketball skillfully? Why do you artificially limit your skill when it comes to some sports but consider your skill unlimited when it comes to daily routine tasks?

The answer is simple: as a kid, whenever you failed to play a game, people surrounding you would relate this to a lack of skill, and so you grew up with the false belief of being unskilled at this activity, while in the case of driving or tying a shoelace, everyone around you kept convincing you that you could do it until you eventually became a professional at it.

So in short, you were fooled. The human body is the ultimate machine; it can perform perfectly anything that it trains well on, so whatever you put your mind to achieving, and whatever you train yourself to do well will eventually be as easy as tying a shoelace. All this needs is for you to believe that you can do it.

So Is There Actually Something Called Skill?

Definitely yes. I am not saying that skill isn't real, all I'm saying is that a skilled person needs less time to be a professional at something, while a less skilled person needs more. This means that being proficient at something is a function of believing in yourself and persistence in training at doing it. There are of course people born already skilled in one thing or another, but you can catch up with them by training hard, believing in yourself and not let anyone fool you!!!