{"id":946,"date":"2019-03-13T10:44:12","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T14:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/?p=946"},"modified":"2019-03-13T10:15:56","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T14:15:56","slug":"making-it-look-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/making-it-look-easy\/","title":{"rendered":"Making It Look Easy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Inigo Montoya: You are wonderful.
<\/p>

Man in Black: Thank you; I\u2019ve worked hard to become so.
<\/p>The Princess Bride<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I love watching people who are skilled at their craft.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scene from \u201cThe Princess Bride” quoted above is a perfect example. Two highly skilled swordsmen in an epic duel. Both such masters of their blades that they make it look easy.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently had a front row seat at a concert by Ellis Marsalis and his trio. Ellis Marsalis is a jazz pianist and the patriarch of the well known Marsalis clan. Perhaps you\u2019ve heard of his more popular sons Branford and Winton, or the younger Delfeayo and Jason.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concert was an evening of awesome music and performance. Ellis is well known in the jazz world for his smooth style at the piano. At 84 years old, he can barely walk. But, when his hands start moving over the keys, you forget that he needed assistance to get to his position on the piano bench.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He makes it look easy.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If someone had said, \u201cYou are wonderful,\u201d he would have been justified in responding, \u201cThank you; I\u2019ve worked hard to become so.”
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is it that you do that elicits that statement?
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll bet that there are things you have done for so long that you find them to be easy to do and that you have forgotten how long you worked to become proficient. With most things we do on a regular basis, once we become good at them, we forget that it was ever hard. Take walking for example. Or riding a bike.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a fun saying that if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concept of that saying is that when we have mastered a particular tool or technique, we tend to apply that tool or technique as our first choice for anything we encounter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the go-to tool in your toolbox?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s nothing wrong with this \u201ceverything looks like a nail” approach. When we have great skills in a particular thing, it makes sense to apply those skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem arises when we become so enamored by someone else\u2019s mastery of their particular tool of choice that we forget that isn\u2019t the only way to accomplish the task.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each of the Marsalis brothers plays a different instrument. Imagine if they all thought they had to create music the same way as their dad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, that\u2019s exactly how we often think. We see someone who is good at artistic painting, or sewing, or creating masterful Excel spreadsheets. We can\u2019t do those specific things, so we feel \u201cless than.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often, this gets exacerbated by the Excel expert who thinks the only way to do, well, pretty much anything, is by using Excel. So, everything they show you involves a spreadsheet. If you\u2019re not good with that tool, the job becomes harder and wrought with frustration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go back to the original objective. What are you trying to accomplish? How is that \u201cexpert\u201d using their tool of choice to accomplish it? What are your skills? How could you apply what you are good at to accomplish your goal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many ways to attach two pieces of lumber together. A hammer and nails is only one of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In music, the variety of instruments makes the music better. We all need more cowbell. But, even that has its limits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use your tools. Make it look easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are wonderful. You\u2019ve worked hard to become so. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inigo Montoya: You are wonderful. Man in Black: Thank you; I\u2019ve worked hard to become so. The Princess Bride I love watching people who are skilled at their craft. The scene from \u201cThe Princess Bride” quoted above is a perfect example. Two highly skilled swordsmen in an epic duel. Both such masters of their blades … Continue reading Making It Look Easy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[7,13,52,9,8,10],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":951,"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946\/revisions\/951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}