And to be honest, it never was. I have heard a few people tell me they can’t get rich or start their own business or achieve their dreams because they say ‘I have no skills’.. What’s that got to do with anything?
Even if for example, a person has no skills to speak of in ANY area of life they can still become rich, successful, happy and anything else they want! Skills are easy to learn. You can learn just about anything these days on the internet, and with the rise of things like online university and YouTube providing how to videos on just about anything, you can’t use that as an excuse to fail.
‘I have no skills in Origami’
A year ago, if you asked me to make something out of folded paper, I would have said something like ‘I have no skills in origami’ or ‘I don’t know how to do it’. That’s no excuse! The other day, I learned in about an hour or so how to make a paper rose.
I learned how to make that in under an hour, by watching a video on YouTube, slowly deconstructing the skills needed to make it happen and making slow steady steps until it was finished. It might not be perfect but it’s certainly something which many people would consider ‘skillful’ if they knew nothing about origami!
I don’t practice origami, and this is really just an example that I pulled from the top of my head using a picture that happened to be still on my phone! You can learn how to do anything! It’s all online and if you apply yourself, skills can be easily developed.
People will always make excuses for why they’re not where they’d like to be, actually I wrote a post about this the other day explaining how every person is the sum total of their thoughts, and they’re where they are in life because that’s exactly where they REALLY want to be. Read it here. It’s important to realize that you’re responsible for your life and that everything you tell yourself or others you can or can’t do is in fact YOUR OPINION or your assumption.
‘I don’t have any skills’ .. Well get some! You’d be surprised how little skill is actually needed for success.. What it really comes down to more than skill is work ethic and greatness is therefore not one single act of importance but lots of little acts of greatness done over a long time. The battle isn’t won in the ring, it’s won months before, in the gym or the training circuit.
When one guy gets up an hour earlier and trains that much harder, doesn’t skip a workout and eats right EVERY day, that’s where the battle is won. It might look like it’s won in the ring by one guy who’s clearly better than the other, but the work and actions needed to let that guy win happened long before they stepped into the ring.
It’s the same things done day in day out which over time build something bigger, and therefore saying you have no skills is like telling yourself you’re going to fail in advance. You don’t want to plan for failsure and if you asked anyone they’d never say ‘I want to fail’. Think about this and consider if you really don’t have any skills, then ask yourself if what you need is skills, OR work ethic and motivation?
Skills vs Work
Sure you can be skillful at something and that gives you an advantage, but skill is usually only built through hours and hours of repetition and practice. Everything you do every day is actually building up your skill in that thing.. If you surf the internet for hours you’re building your skill of procrastination.
Spending hours playing video games builds your skill in that area..
Spending hours writing articles will make you more skilled at that.
Ask yourself then what things you want to build up skills for and what things you’re doing every day that you don’t really need to be good at. Do you NEED to know how to score a perfect game on Call of Duty, or is it better to learn how to generate passive income for a financially secure future?
Final thoughts
Saying ‘I have no skills’ is not really an excuse for anything. Any skill you need can be learned online or from other people who have the skill, and even then the important thing is not skill but work ethic and attitude. That’s where greatness is achieved.