3 motivational stories about the importance of mastering your skills — no excuses

When can you truly say that you have mastered your skill? Have you mastered any skills? If so which — share in the comment section.

In psychology, there is a very interesting phenomenon that partially deals with this topic called and it’s called “the Dunning Kruger effect”. Basically, the Dunning Kruger effect deals with the problem of not enough experienced people thinking that they have mastered their skills and are very confident and verbal about them. On the other hand, the problem of people who have mastered their skills is that they are too humble, nearly not enough “loud”, and are not willing to expose themselves too much out of fear that they have not yet mastered their skills enough.

Finding something that you like or even better love to do is one key factor of mastering it, but then there is so much more. An interesting book that I have read on this topic was by Malcolm Gladwell — Outliers, where at the start of the book he talks about the 10.000-hour rule and other key elements that make you an Outlier in your field. To help you get there let's take a look at three stories that will motivate you on your path to mastering your chosen skill. And if you know anyone who could use a little bit of motivation share with them these stories.

Story number 1: When your weakness becomes your biggest strength

A 10-year-old boy decided to study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident.

The boy began lessons with an old Japanese judo master. The boy was doing well, so he couldn’t understand why, after three months of training the master had taught him only one move. “Sensei,”(Teacher in Japanese) the boy finally said, “Shouldn’t I be learning more moves?” “This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you’ll ever need to know,” the sensei replied.

Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training. Several months later, the sensei took the boy to his first tournament. Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches. The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy…