Being Good at Something Can Keep You From Getting Better

One of the problems with being good at something is that you can stop thinking about how you're doing it.

That's usually considered a sign of progress.

You've spent years developing a skill, making mistakes, learning what works, and eventually you reach a point where things that used to require a tremendous amount of effort become almost automatic.

You know what you're doing.

But I think there's a point where that can start working against you.

I was working with somebody who's already very successful in sales.

He has experience, relationships, and a proven ability to generate business.

He's not trying to figure out how to become competent.

He's trying to figure out how to become substantially more successful than he already is.

And when we started discussing what would need to change, he said he already knew what he needed to do.

Maybe he did.

But that answer raised another question for me.

If you already know exactly what you need to do, why aren't you getting the results you're trying to get?

Now, there are plenty of possible answers.

Maybe you aren't executing consistently.

Maybe there are circumstances outside your control.

Maybe you haven't given the process enough time.

But there's another possibility that I think successful people sometimes overlook.

Maybe you know how to produce the results you're currently getting, and you're assuming that same approach will produce results at a completely different level.

Those aren't necessarily the same thing.

When you've been successful doing something a particular way, you have good reasons to trust that approach.

It's not irrational.

You've got evidence that it works.

The problem is that evidence of what worked before doesn't automatically tell you what will work next.

I've had to confront this in my own business, too.

Being good at coaching is one thing.

Building a coaching business that can grow without every part of it depending on me is another.

Some of the habits that helped me become successful at the first may not be enough to solve the second.

It doesn't mean those habits are bad

It means the problem has changed.

And I think that's an uncomfortable distinction for people who are used to being capable.

When you're struggling, you expect to have things to learn.

When you're successful, it's easier to assume the answer is to keep doing what you're already doing, only harder.

Sometimes that's exactly right.

But sometimes you're trying to solve a structural problem with additional effort.

You can become so proficient at operating within your existing approach that you stop questioning whether the approach itself is capable of taking you where you want to go.

That's when competence becomes a ceiling.

Not because you've stopped being good at the work.

Because being good at the work has made it easier to avoid reconsidering it.

If you're trying to create results you've never created before, you may need to question the very approach that made you successful in the first place.