As someone who blogged her way through almost a decade deciding to make videos was new. Something I’d never done. And let me tell you, team, sucking at something was hard. I really struggle with it. Before video, I felt like I had arrived!  I’d conquered the online world in my own way. I was sitting pretty on a throne of ‘made it’ and ‘been there, done that’.

But week after week, as I released a new video, I was disappointed with my efforts. They were bad. I’d tried hard, they were the best I could offer, but they were still bad. It was frustrating; I’d taught myself photography, how to write in a conversational tone and even some much-needed grammar and spelling.

Much. Needed.

But here I was back at square one again. Sucking. If it wasn’t the sound, it was the lighting. If it wasn’t the lighting it was my frame rates or shutter speed. I mean, I’ve stuffed every single thing up that I could. Once I even exported a video with a chunk of sound missing. Another with the sound out of whack. I mean. ARGH.

Why couldn’t I just be GOOD at this already? Why was the learning curve so steep and horrible. The struggle made me feel like I knew nothing (because I didn’t) and that I would never get there (but I would, or I will). Video by video, a minute of footage by minute, I was reminded that I suck at this.

You can’t be good at everything!

Yeah!? Who said? Watch me try.

You get the idea, right? You can see right through to my soul in just that one statement. I’m okay with that. Because somewhere along the way, I learnt to embrace sucking at things. I discovered that the world wouldn’t end if I didn’t know how to make it work. Somewhere along the way, I remembered when I used to suck at things.

I’d forgotten the years it had taken me to take better photos, and the years after that spent learning to process those images. Not to mention that there are still days when my photos just plain old suck. I’d forgotten that I’ve been writing since childhood, honing my ‘voice’ and the way I shape words with every book I’ve read and story I’ve told.

These things didn’t just come to me; I earned them.

Embracing sucking at things | Suger Coat It

Through practice and patience, persistence and perseverance I earned them. I keep reminding myself of that as I learn to make videos. As I keep being pushing and challenged past the point where I am comfortable. It’s different, and I’ve never been here before, but I have. I’ often outside of my comfort zone.

And that’s all this is, a girl, at the end of her comfort zone, hoping that one day soon what she sees in her mind catches up with what she sees on the screen. A girl who is pushed and stretched learns something valuable and important, a skill that will change the way she communicates. And, a girl, who NEEDS to stop talking in the third person, A-SAP.

But you get me, right? You’ve been here before and won? All we need to do to do it again is embrace the sucking. Keep learning and keep growing so that inch by what seems like impossible inch we get better. Then one day, it’ll be like writing a blog post or snapping that photo, it’ll be second nature.

And I’ll be wondering what all the fuss was about.

 


Find me on YouTube, sucking, at www.youtube.com/c/Sugercoatit.  You’re going to love it. Haha. Probably not, but thanks for your support. And in case you missed it, season three of the podcast has been uploaded there too, it’s SO funny to watch us talk it out when we’re used to recording without video. Fun!


 

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