How To Be Good at Everything

The wonderful Hank Green

I, for one, had always striven to be a semi-well-rounded person who was good at doing a good amount of things. Has the endeavor worked out? Why, of course not. (Not yet, at least.) To be honest with you, I have kinda sorta been on a hiatus on that endeavor. Being well-rounded in skills is not something that comes easily, especially if you're a bit slow to grasp new concepts (-cough- me).

Then, I clicked on this video.

The video is called, "How To Get Good at Everything" by Hank Green. Enticing title, don't you think? In the video, he starts off by telling viewers about how he's in the process of writing a novel, but how the process has been terribly difficult for him. He also mentions how he has John Green for a brother, the best-selling young adult novelist, which intimidates him at a certain degree...

But Hank then changes the topic of conversation around to tell viewers about his thought process in regards to, and I quote Hank himself, "...what we mean when say that someone is good at something." The entire video brings up a very important reminder that we should never really forget, in my opinion, which is the reason why I'm writing this post at this very moment. In a nutshell, Hank says that in some point in time, we all, even the pros, have sucked at a new skill, but that is completely okay and necessary.

Wise words by Jake the Dog.

Assuming that you will watch the video (please do; it's an enlightening and encouraging one), he mentions the psychologist Carol Dweck and her studies of two "mindsets" humans apparently have towards acquiring skill and talent--the "Fixed Mindset," the mindset that skills are innate (aka 'yer born with it, son!), and the "Growth Mindset," the mindset that skills are developed and honed, then acquired.

I think most of us have told ourselves about some people, "Golly, he or she must've been just born with (insert skill here)!" ...For instance, I most frequently have told myself that about the pianists Kyle Landry and Emily Bear, and some other people I personally know whom I shall not name here on this public website for obvious reasons. This Fixed Mindset, as Hank mentions, is not exactly beneficial in any way, because it tends to dangerously demotivate me to the point that I stop trying to improve any further. If I wasn't born with the skill, what's even the point, right?

However... after hearing Hank Green say, "The ultimate first step [to become good at everything] is to realize that all skill and talent are not innate, that all these things come from hard work, and that they are composed of a multitude of different things...," I just felt a little more uplifted.

Hank is saying that Kyle Landry, a pianist whom I admire a heckuva lot, didn't start out playing beautifully on the piano from the first moment he laid his fingers against the keys. He's saying that even Emily Bear, a piano prodigy, didn't suddenly burst out and play a piano concerto at two years old. Of course, there is absolute truth to those statements. These wonderful people are undeniably talented, and may have developed their skills more quickly than others because they're as absorbent as sponges, but no way were either of them born excellent pianists. No one is born good at something. Not your college Calculus professor at math, not Gordon Ramsay at cooking Beef Wellington, not your mom or dad at folding clothes... I repeat, no one is born good at something.

Gotta work for this, hunny.

These people I've mentioned above have all worked hard to get to where they are. They've failed, they've tried again, and they've practiced their craft (yes, folding clothes is a craft) for many, many years. It's crucial never to forget that.

There was this one time that I almost had an ice cream truck slam into my car at a T-intersection, and almost crashed butt-first into the car behind me while reversing for the ice cream truck.

If I were to use the "Fixed Mindset" to go about this, I would've given up and said, "Gosh-darn it, I guess I wasn't born with this damn skill to drive!" and huffed and puffed my way back home, never to touch a steering wheel again. If I were to use the "Growth Mindset," alright, I completely humiliated myself, probably made the person behind me piss his pants and swear unmannerly things at me, but I think gained some skill points in driving...

The Growth Mindset is basically your being an "experience opportunist." Take all the experiences you've made yourself, regardless whether they're good or bad (or, in my case, endangering to someone's life), and use them to self-improve. This is pretty much what Hank is saying to explain "how to get good at everything." It works pretty darn well.

There's only one universal formula to "getting good"--to fail and learn. A simple concept, but something that we all may tend to forget sometimes.

Let's stop being a little too negative for a moment, and think about something we are good at. For me, I think of grammar. Though I'll always continuously learn more and more new things about grammar, I do feel that I have a sturdy grasp of the English language, sturdy enough that grammar errors on websites and Facebook comments serve as thigh-slapping inside jokes. Remembering the many different (sometimes strange) rules of the English language took me officially since the seventh grade, but now I look at myself, after publishing blog posts with horrid grammar, learning from my mistakes made on grammar quizzes, and even thinking that I hated grammar, to see that I'm writing comfortably and fluidly. Bam. All the same, whether you're good at cleaning the dishes, planning an event, or playing League of Legends, the process of being good at it did not take overnight. You failed, you learned, and you tried again. That's how you succeeded, and that's how you will ever succeed.

I learned from that chaotic driving experience to be freakin' stupid careful at a T-intersection. I also will continue to learn from other unruly mistakes I will make on the road. Even if I drive into a pole or scrape every surface of my car or have a total of 300-some people who have honked their horns at me for turning too slowly, I'm going to learn something from it, and I'm going to get better at driving. I have faith that eventually, I will be fairly decent at it, and not have chronic anxiety over it. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next week, but eventually.

It's great that you could apply this to anything--gaming, cooking, singing, interacting with people, editing a video, drawing, using Adobe After Effects... (God, that thing is confusing.)

So, the ultimate question of, "How do you become good at everything?" has an answer: Be bad at everything, at least once. 

That takes courage.

But, you know, when sometimes whatever you're doing doesn't work out, which sometimes it won't, just remember that bad experiences make good stories. It's all good.

Thank you, Hank Green, for that lovely video and giving me inspiration to write this post. I also hope others feel inspired never to give up on whatever skill they are working on improving. Anyone can become good at, maybe not everything, but a lot of things that seem like everything, but it only comes from an open attitude and unwavering commitment from day one and onwards. Then, he or she will be entitled to bust out the confetti and champagne (or apple cider, if you're underaged) and live with a warm glow of satisfaction. Good deal. :D