The Novice Phase

00:00

In November 2024, I traveled to Tamarindo, Costa Rica, and while the weather conditions were not optimal, I chose to have fun nonetheless. As I was setting up my camera, I was approached by a surfer who was curious about my equipment. We had a pleasant conversation and offered to film him with my drone as he surfed. He accepted it happily and took off into the sea.

It was all going well until I realized that I’m still a novice operating “Tito”, the drone. Soon after launching it, I began facing problems. I couldn’t find the surfer in the sea, position the camera in the right angle, or move Tito accurately to follow him. Lucky for me, it started drizzling and I had to bring Tito back. At that moment, I felt relieved that I didn’t have to showcase my inexperience flying a drone no more. However, this instance reminded me of the hardest part when embarking in a new endeavor, the novice phase.

In this article, I discuss the novice phase, the misconception of it, and the importance of overcoming this challenge and starting now.

The novice phase is the initial period of time when learning new skill and we, most inevitably, make continuous mistakes, making it a rigorous period of development by exposing our inexperience.

The issue is not the mistakes themselves, but rather the judgement we create during this learning curve because we tend to feel, well… stupid.

This phase becomes even harder when being trained by someone else because we now feel our progress is being judged. We may feel discouraged to ask questions about things that had already been explained but were not clear to us because we would look incompetent.

The Problem

Unfortunately, the resistance experienced due to the novice phase, when considering pursuing an endeavor, is detrimental to our dreams because our ego gets in the way of achieving them.

Our ego will remind us of the many challenges we will face and then ask us if we want to feel and look foolish. For this reason, many of us prefer to stick to what we already know than to learn and practice something new.

While it might seem fine to stick to what we already know, the subconscious mind is aware of the stagnation, leading to a lower self-esteem. Interestingly, it is precisely this type of struggle that makes life rewarding because it makes us feel like we are growing. Especially if it is in an area that gets us closer to the version of ourselves that we are striving for.

Reality

The truth is that while the novice phase is an inevitable part in any journey, being inexperienced doesn’t make us less of a person. Mistakes will happen, but we must remain composed and not let fear, pride, or any negative emotion to overtake us. They give us an opportunity to strengthen our mental fortitude to remain calm and continue learning.

When was the last time we judged a child after falling when learning how to walk? Possibly never because we have accepted that as normal, and in the same way, we should accept making mistakes as normal, especially when undertaking a new venture.

But what if someone judges us? That’s their problem. We are on our paths to achieving a goal and we should not let someone’s comments or facial expression determine our future. They could be exhibiting an insecurity due to lack of courage to overcome their own novice phase resistance.

Either way, most of us aren’t thinking about other people’s mistakes because we are focused on our own challenges. One of us may be facing parental difficulties at home, another one financial issues, and another one health issues.

Ask yourself these questions: Do I still think about the embarrassing mistakes I made a year ago? Or those of others?

The answer is probably no because we are now confronting a new set of life experiences.

Unexpected Challenges

I find it funny how something always happens when it’s time to perform the skill we have been learning, even if we practiced regularly. For example, a couple of years ago I was attending a toastmasters public speaking club to get rid of my fear of public speaking. When it become time to give the speech I had been rehearsing for weeks, I didn’t realize that it was halloween week.

As soon as I began delivering my speech, a girl walked into the classroom, disrupting my concentration, and started passing out superhero masks to students.

Suddenly, I found myself delivering a speech to Spiderman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Hulk. My subconscious mind began yelling at me: “This is not how we practiced delivering the speech!”. This created a few elongated pauses and stutters in my speech, but I managed to regain composure and deliver the speech nonetheless.

Could I have prepared for that? Well… I suppose… But I never anticipated that happening.

Start Now

Time is a limited resource. Even if we believe we have many years ahead of us, that is just an assumption. Additionally, today’s version of us will be different than tomorrow’s version, both mentally and physically.

For example, many people wait until they retire from work to start traveling. However, the experience of traveling at an elderly age may be less enjoyable than traveling at a younger age because the body is no longer as strong to withstand the demands of traveling equally.

Furthermore, today’s circumstances may be granting us adequate time to pursuit our goals. We don’t know what tomorrow’s circumstances might be like. Perhaps, a new commitment may shrink the free time we currently have.

Conclusion

I am a firm believer that we need to continuously overcome challenges and have achievements to be proud of to maintain a high self-esteem. Therefore, we should not let the novice phase deter us from pursuing our goals.

This phase is just a minor chapter at the beginning of any endeavor, and instead of resisting it or feeling foolish, lets make it a reminder that we are stronger than our egos, and that this is an opportunity to develop our mental fortitude. At the end, this is just small price to pay for the wealth that comes with personal success.