“I’ve never done this before.”
This is such a common objection I hear when somebody is confronted with a task they haven’t done before.
Incidentally, it’s also what I tell myself when I am afraid of something I haven’t done before.
I probably use it in order to somehow pre-empt or downplay my failure or explain away my own incompetence.
The initial reaction to trying or attempting something new tends to be fear-based. A negation. A problem. A “no can do”.
But what if we just dropped the “I haven’t done this before” and got on with the task at hand? Or tried doing it before declaring we couldn’t? Or just blithely sailed the new sea ahead of us without reference to our lack of expertise?
Most things in this long and vast and confusing life are relatively uncharted. In fact, every day is pretty much uncharted territory in some ways.
So I think we should stop highlighting what we have (or haven’t) done before, and see whether we can reach even further with what we will do next.
It is by being brave and bold and doing things we have never done before that we grow.
