It’s okay to be a beginner when trying something new

I think everyone should try something new every year. Maybe this is a new sport, a new technique for an existing hobby, or a different aspect of your interests.

It’s really easy to get caught in cruise mode when you reach a certain level of success. Many of my clients are successful business people, or experts in their chosen fields. Others have had a lot of success in a sport or passion outside of that. They’re often used to being good at the things they do, so when it comes to learning a new skill and going through that initial “man, I’m not great at this” phase it’s really easy to get disheartened and give up.

I’ve been in dogs my entire life, putting the hours of hard work in across many different dogs in work, sports and pet dog training, even before I dived into the science side and went hard on the learning too. As a result, I’ve had a lot of success with personal dogs, rescue dogs and client dogs getting the results they need.

But this year it’s been the year of learning, from seminars to a puppy of a whole different breed and a new sport to dive into. I’ve found areas I really want to improve at, and some of that is really tough, technically, physically and confidence wise. So I’m a beginner again, in this particular part of the passion and life’s work I’ve been chasing for the past 29 years. And learning to be okay with not being the expert in this particular area. Yet. And ironically, it’s actually been one of the most excited I’ve been about dogs in a while.

So if you’re also struggling with being the beginner and sucking at something again, here’s your permission to be as awful at it. Progress starts where your comfort zone ends, and we all have to start somewhere. Get out there and do the thing, and keep doing the thing until it’s a little less sucky. You’ve got this 💪🏻