If you’re new to thinking about the world through the lens of experiences then you shouldn’t feel flustered if you don’t know where to start. When we’re present for a great experience, it feels like magic – how on earth did anyone come up with that idea, with all those moving parts, in that order, and make it appear spontaneous?
They came up with it exactly the same way anyone comes up with any good idea… by coming up with a bad idea first.
If you’re a professional swimmer, your job is to show up on race day and win the medal. But Tatjana Schoenmaker didn’t win break the world record and win the gold medal by showing up on race day.
She broke the world record and won the Olympic medal by showing up at practice. And the first time she showed up at practice, the very first time – when she was 5 years old, it’s almost certain she wasn’t very good. How could she be; it was new, and she was just starting.
And then she showed up again, and she swam some more, and she got better. And then one day, after a lot of practices, she was very good. Not suddenly very good. Incrementally very good.
It’s the same with ideas, with writing, with sales, with innovation, with experiences. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know where to start. Just show up at practice.
You’ll be bad, and that’s fine. That’s normal. That’s just how it works.
You start with a bad idea, with bad writing, with a bad sales call, with a bad song. And then you do it again. You keep writing, you keep singing, you keep innovating, you keep showing up for practice. And then one day, about 19 years later, you might win a gold medal.
There’s no guarantee. Lilly King is also a professional. Lilly King also showed up at practice. And Lilly King didn’t win a gold medal that day.
And even though there are no guarantees, showing up at practice is the best method you have for generating good ideas. Start with your bad ideas, and then make them better. And if you can’t make them any better, then take everything you learnt and make another one, write another thing, design another thing. Keep hitting the ball, keep swimming lengths.
The good news is that it really doesn’t take very long to get pretty good, because pretty good is relative. Pretty good actually means, ‘pretty good compared to everything else that’s out there’. And it turns out that most adults don’t like showing up for practice. “Practice is for kids, for beginners, for the inexperienced. But me, I know what I’m doing, I’m good at my job. Olympic gold medalists don’t have to show up for practice…“
Well if you choose to be one of the few who does show up for practice then pretty soon you’ll be pretty good compared to everyone else out there.