Embracing the Ugly Work
How many of us wait until we feel confident before we take action?
When we’re about to do something new and different, many of us tend to wait to take action.
Perhaps you tell yourself “I don’t know how,” so you procrastinate on getting started. Or you want to do juuust a little more research to figure out the right steps to take. It’s all normal — we like to feel confident in our abilities before we move forward.
But here’s the thing: you’re not going to feel confident when you start something new. Feeling awkward, uncertain, and uncomfortable are the very emotions that signal you’re doing something new. It’s because you’re at the bottom of the S Curve.
The concept of the S Curve comes from Whitney Johnson, whose work is summarized by Reid Hoffman in his post The S Curve of Learning.
The start of any new pursuit — whether it’s plotting a career pivot, starting a new job, or taking up a new sport — is going to feel hard. You’re going to do ugly work and you’re going to make mistakes. But the only way to learn and improve is by doing.
Right now, I’m at the bottom of the S Curve in many areas of my business. This post is an example of my own ugly work. It’s been years since I’ve had to write blogs and articles. The process feels like wearing a new pair of shoes — stiff, painful in certain spots, and uncertain if it even represents my style. (I haven’t even figured out my style).
And yet, the only way to get to a place of mastery is to keep at it, accepting that blisters will come, and that with enough consistency, it will start to feel comfortable and easy as I move up my S Curve.
Where are you on your S Curve?
If you’re at the start of your own S Curve, first acknowledge where you are and take a moment to feel proud. You are embarking on something new and unfamiliar. You’re pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. That’s a huge step that should be acknowledged.
Then, just embrace the fact that you’re going to do ugly work. You’ll flounder, it will feel hard, you’ll make mistakes, you’ll have doubts, and you’ll worry what others will think. These are all normal emotions. I repeat: these are all normal. You are doing it right. Just don’t let those emotions and worries stop you.
If you’re contemplating a career pivot, you’ll likely feel stuck. If you’ve begun a job search, you may feel overwhelmed with all the things you could be doing. Just take a first step — any step — to show yourself you are capable of taking action despite feeling uncertain.
This is how you train your brain and get more comfortable being in discomfort. Discomfort is where the growth is.
If you’re in the sweet spot of your S Curve, enjoy it.
If you’re at the top of your S Curve, check in with yourself. Are you still satisfied or are you feeling that itch that you’re getting too comfortable? After a while of being on a plateau, it may be time to enter a new S Curve. Because that’s the only way we grow, learn, and achieve mastery in yet another area of our life.
Embrace the ugly work — you can’t shortcut success without it.
*Ugly work is a term I got from Anthony Trucks, who talked about how he improved his speaking skills by doing 90-second videos for 1,333 days straight in this podcast.