The Lie of Expertise

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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