Get your good to better

There's a big question that every adult interested in self-improvement and growth faces: Should I get better at something I'm bad at...or get better at something I'm already good at?

This is not as simple as it seems cause we all hear we need to be good at a lot of things, some that may come very hard to us and some that may be just "natural". From networking to writing to skills specifics to your job, we read countless articles and hear endless advice about "how to...". And you end up feeling inadequate because you are "not" this or that. Well, if you care.

Now someone told me about this saying: "If you start with minus and get better. You'll still be a 0". HARSH!
But it makes a good point, why get better at things that are so against your own nature?

There are reasons though. The biggest one can be that you simply want to. Maybe you have some childhood trauma and want to make up for it, or you always dreamed of being/doing something or maybe you just have a fixation "these days". Who knows, reasons abound and no one can stop you from trying. But time is limited and energy is even more so and the opportunity cost of doing "this" instead of "that" can be huge. Never forget that everything you do compounds. As they say, if you improve 1% weekly you'll be A LOT better in a year.

So the smart money are on being smart and betting hard on what you are already good at and getting better cause you have already a huge advantage. Pound your advantage to excellence, might be the smarter thing to do. Yet, not everything is so easy...
Sometimes, getting good is not one skill or action - unless you are in a certain type of profession in which it can be: cooking, coding - but for stuff that are more vague you might need a lot of other skills that don't come easy. And then, you need to be well-rounded to achieve elite-level in your field. In this case, isn't it smart to try to go from "minus" to "zero" at least? And when you get to "0" isn't there a chance that you already are better at this and can get into the positive?

I don't know what the right answer is. I grow up with this idea that you need "talent" to achieve anything. As a child, I knew I can't sing or draw so I never even tried. I had not "talent". Later in life I discovered that wanting and working for something is worth a lot more than idle talent. This was a huge paradigm shift for me. I had this eye-opening liberating epiphany that the only thing between me and what I wanted is hard word, dedication and focus. So saying that working on your weakness is a waste of time makes 0 zero sense for me.

However, I also learned that to be good at something, really good, really really market-value good you need a certain obsession and tunnel vision focus. Scattering your energy and focus leads to a well-rounded mediocrity. As I used to say:
I know a little about a lot, but I am the master of nothing..
Thing is, this sounded cool 10 years ago but not I do not want to be the master of nothing anymore. What's the great thing about this?

I sometimes think of it as a game, one of those RPG where you chose what skills to upgrade and you let some other behind: You can be a warrior but not a good magicians or maybe you can be a healer but not good at defense. Thing is, each new advanced skills required a plethora of lesser skills and you could not complete all the lesser skills in every discipline to evolve as each skill costs you a limited resource ( as you upgraded in rank you got more of this resources, but also acquiring new advanced skill become costly- kind of like ageing? ).
It was a cool thing to try to be ok in many disciplined: a good warrior, a good magician, a healer. You got to a higher level with these skills kind of even, but not amazing at anything.

Usually you met other players that leveled up seriously in one direction and you get your ass handed to you. A powerful magician would destroy your defense and you couldn't kill/heal fast enough to win. A powerful warrior would kill you before you could spell-bind him effectively. You couldn't even join too many guilds as they were looking to fill specific roles: they needed a GREAT healer, not an ok one that can also hit...kind of?.

You see, doing it like that is a bad strategy in these games and in life.

I am not sure I want to make any point...I'm still not sure that I know the right answer but I know a few things. It is mandatory to be very good at something and try to always get better at. It helps if you have some "talent" but also if you love it and have an obsession for it. You will keep disciplined, motivated and on track.
But I also think there are skill that are worth pursuing that complement any and all other things you do:

• social skill: always good to meet people, related and make new friends. Can be also used for networking. It's who you know, right?
• writing: powerful tool to express yourself clearly and make your points understood. Also people who express themselves well in writing are perceived as more intelligent.
• debating: arguments are part of life, why not be a little better than most?
• a sport/gym: just enough to be able to hold your own, improve. it doesn't take much but it can have tremendous advantages in your personal life.
• style/fashion; learn to dress well, to have a style, to flatter your body type. I can not think any situation in which being well-dressed hurts but the vice-versa can be true.

Perhaps there are ther skills as well. A curious mind will find more and more stuff to be interested in and get good at. A curious and smart mind will focus most of its energy to what matters the most, and the rest on what can be boost your main skills in various ways.

God, it's exhausting being an adult.