Experts make their craft look effortless. A perfect spiral
on a long touchdown pass. A clutch jump shot to win the game as time expires.
An inspiring and eloquently delivered speech. A beautiful piano solo. A
breathtaking painting executed with elegant brushstrokes. An impassioned anthem
by a singer.
All of these performances look so graceful and natural that
we fail to consider the sacrifice and struggle making them possible. What’s
more, we forget there’s nothing natural or effortless about any of it. Expertise
is messy. Only through grueling practice and enduring countless setbacks does
anyone get even close to that kind of proficiency.
And we believe the lie that this level of skill is somehow
magically imparted on a lucky few. We tell ourselves we must have some special
anointing to achieve exceptional expertise. And that becomes the cop out for
our own lack of effort, creating our mediocre results as a self-fulfilling
prophecy.
While most of us would never achieve the extraordinary
levels of expertise displayed in Michael Jordan’s fade-away jumper or Whitney
Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” no matter how hard we work, all too often we
still sell ourselves short. We fall for the Lie of Expertise that disguises
effort and hard work as graceful ease. We tell ourselves if a skill doesn’t
come easily, it’s not meant to be.
Expertise is anything but effortless.
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