A Twist on "Suck It Up"

Most people are familiar with the saying that, “Anything worth doing is worth doing well.”  Like you, I heard it many times growing up.  And I get where it comes from.  We want others to succeed.  We seek out great performances.  We love celebrating victories.

However, most people are so focused on doing well that they’ve paralyzed themselves from even taking the first step and instead do nothing at all!

Picture this.  A young boy sits in the living room of his house, eyes glued to the television set.  He’s watching the final match of the 1985 Wimbledon Men’s Singles between Boris Becker and Kevin Curren.  After an exciting and grueling four sets, which included quite a bit of leaping and diving across the court, Becker becomes the youngest Wimbledon champion at 17 years of age.

Becker’s amazing performance inspires the young boy to pick up a tennis racquet and step on the court for the first time.  He tosses a ball into the air and swings for it, but instead of an incredible, low passing shot over the net, the ball lobs backwards over the fence surrounding the tennis court.  Discouraged after such an embarrassing attempt, the boy walks home defeated.  It would be another four years until I picked up another tennis racquet.

I placed such a high value on performing well that I’d forgotten that top performance is something that must be developed. How ridiculous was it for me to expect a perfect Wimbledon-worthy performance at 9-years-old!  Yet that’s what most people do every day, talking themselves out of that new investment, or new career path, or new relationship.  That’s why I much prefer this adaptation of the saying:

“Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly – at first.”

It’s not about perfection, it’s about PROGRESS.  Progress comes from improvement.  Improvement comes from doing better.  To do better, you’ve first got to do poorly.

So here’s the new and improved game plan:

1. Just do it (i.e., get started)
2. Suck it up (i.e., naturally do poorly)
3. Learn from your sucking
4. Suck less next time

PS – Shortly after I started focusing on getting better rather than being perfect, I picked up a tennis racquet for the second time and soon made my high school tennis team for 3 years and eventually lettered.  It wasn’t a Grand Slam cup, but looking back at how I’d progressed it felt outstanding!