Muscle not skill

My last post, Can we do the work?, relates to the fact that most people question whether something will work or not. That is the wrong postulation. In the same manner, thinking about talent or skill is a poor analogy to doing work you’re proud of.

Most of the things we admire in those at the top of society are “muscles” that their respective owners have chose to exercise routinely. Steve Jobs exemplified salesmanship. He was routinely selling things, products, stories for publicity, and even ideas for how Apple should run. Salesmanship was a “muscle” he built.

I recently wrote another piece about Three perfect games…, that would not have been possible without the muscles to balance, time a release correctly and create a good shots. When I take too much time off bowling, the muscles weaken. After a hiatus, the skill of bowling in my mind is still sharp, but the ability to deliver it has faded. Even in the previous example of Steve Jobs’ salesmanship, while that seems less physical, his mannerisms, tones, and more would dull if he didn’t perform them regularly.

When you want to let yourself off the hook for not being skilled enough, remember it’s muscle and not skill, and there is no way to build muscle except through repetition.