Day 23,665: Why My Skill Sets Have Cracks

I have trouble starting at the beginning. Moreover, I have trouble going back to the beginning.  What’s really true is that I’m bored with beginnings. This is probably why, per my previous post, I am a perpetual intermediate.

Let me explain. Frequently, in my life, I need to get things done to a minimally viable level very quickly. This has been true at work, true for school projects with the kids when they were younger, true for blogging. It’s also because I’m impatient. I just want to get started so I may skip steps to get something going. Then…

Then, something happens and I realize I’ve missed some basics along the way and have to go back a few steps to gain some needed expertise. You see starting is not necessarily starting at the beginning.

Take skiing, for example. I had been skiing for years before I invested the time to take days away and do some serious ski lessons at Gray Rocks in Canada. It was a renowned ski school/boot camp for skiiers. In one short week I came back a more advanced skier because I had invested the time in going back to school, being forced to revisit my slow plow technique before, under expert guidance, being allowed to shush downhill paralleling. In other words I had to back to the beginning.

I missed an opportunity to go back to basics again at a recent WordPress Convention. I didn’t take the Beginner’s Track because I’m not a beginner, but…  I should have taken the beginner’s track because I’ve missed some things along the way.  I just get bored having to sit through the stuff I already know to get to the stuff I should know but don’t.  Hence, some of my admin/setups are not correct yet on this blog. I have to go back to setup basics to figure out what I did wrong in my haste to get started.

And so I’m beginning to think about my next phase of life even though I haven’t started it yet. It’s not my strength because from years of working in the media, I’m used to working on deadline. As a deadline nears I get good at doing what’s needed to meet the deadline.

Will that change in being a Crone? I think so because I will have the time to indulge in going back to basics on several things and filling in the gaps. Perhaps I’ll study my professed religion to remember things I’ve long forgotten or never known. Perhaps I’ll have time to read nonfiction books and understand some historical events I never quite understood.

In London, the Underground is filled with warnings to Mind the Gap. They incessantly Mindthegapremind you that when a train pulls up, watch your step getting on the train and don’t fall in the space (the gap) between the train and the platform.  It’s a good warning to not to fall through the cracks.

As I reach a new robust age, some may think my next stage of life should be retirement. I think not. I’m going to call it Minding the Gaps: A time when I go back to the beginning of some things so I have the basics down pat not to fall through the cracks. I may even take up skiing again!