Comparing, Conscious Incompetency, Ira Glass and Soloflex

Last week my friend Joy wrote about not comparing herself to others as something that she should always be working on, not just as a New Year's resolution. In the Comments Section, Carlene wrote the quote, "Never compare your beginning to someone else's middle." Wow. That so resonated with me, especially at my current juncture. 

Many years ago, I went through a really rough patch and upon a friend's urging, I started seeing Susie, a therapist. Susie helped my crawl out of my black as tar chasm up onto the side of a grassy hill. One of the things she'd say as I'd struggle, was that for every new challenge one takes on, one goes through four phases: 

1. Unconscious Incompetency
2. Conscious Incompetency
3. Conscious Competency
4. Unconscious Competency 

To decode her, in the beginning of any new challenge, you start off just doing - you don't realize that what you're doing just isn't very good. Then you move to a phase when you realize, oh - this isn't very good at all. If you stick with it (and this part is key), you will get better at it. Then at some point, you're so good at it, you don't even realize that you're doing it. And if you're the growing type, a new challenge will appear and you'll get to start the entire cycle all over again.  

As a new blogger, it's hard not to constantly doubt myself and wonder if I should be pursuing this path. "Her photos are so much better than mine" "Her posts are so much more eloquent than mine" "She has so many more readers than I do". So between the eloquent and simple quote Carlene shared to what Susie has drummed into my head, it's okay. I'm okay. It's just part of the growing process. If you haven't seen the terrific video that David Shiyang Liu created based on Ira Glass' inspiring video on storytelling, click here to watch it because - to quote the Soloflex slogan from my childhood, "No pain, no gain."

(Video still via David Shiyang Liu; ridiculously buff guy image via Soloflex, circa 1983)