Permission to suck
Over the last three years I started learning several new things: climbing, race car driving, playing piano, tennis, and proper running.
No matter how much I try not to suck at the beginning. And no matter how much I try to be a "great" beginner, I sucked. And there's just no way around it.
Since then I've also witnessed a lot of people getting into the same things. And it's always the same: they try to be confident, they try to be good, and they try to show that they have talent.
But instead they suck. Some suck a lot more than others, but still, everyone sucks and they have no idea what they're doing – and they're miles and miles away from being any good.
I recently hung out with a 3x world champion endurance athlete and he made a point of distinguishing between "lab science" and "field science". The one thing works in theory or in a test tube, the other works in real life.
Learning something new and going through this period of sucking is the real thing. No matter how many theories you have (and I had a lot) about having a beginner mind and being okay with being bad at something, going through the "suck" phase is always challenging.
We recently ran a new online learning program in our company and one of the main takeaways was to give students the "permission to suck" (and these were people who often already played the instrument for decades). It's hard to suck, it's embarrassing, and it takes something out of you. And looking back I almost feel foolish having tried to be good from the start, instead, I should have just humbly submitted myself to the "suck" phase and given myself permission to be terrible and clueless.
I think that's the main takeaway: when you start something new, give yourself permission to be bad. Don't try to be good. Don't try to show you have talent. Just quietly suck and show up for several weeks in a row.