How Do You Rate Your Abilities?
Are You an Under-Rater or Over-Rater?
I had a recent conversation with someone who over-rated his abilities. The conversation was a little on the comical side: once he realized that he was way in over his head, he finished the job as best he could and then he took a break to train harder. Then he tried again and that time round, he accomplished his goal.
Over-Rating Your Abilities
When I talk to people about times in their lives that they over-rated their abilities and found themselves in way over their head, the stories are almost always positive. No one regrets the experience and it taught them things about themselves that they needed to know. Most often, the consequence of over estimating one’s abilities is that it takes longer to accomplish something that she/he imagined would come easy. The bottom line is that when one over-rates one’s abilities, progress is slow but steady, the goal is eventually accomplished and one feels “empowered.”
Under-Rating Your Abilities
In contrast, when I talk to people who under-rate their abilities the conversations are short and negative and often filled with regret: could’ve, should’ve, would’ve are words used in such conversations. Under rating one’s abilities often causes one to quit before they even start; thus, no progress is gained, no goals reached and one ends up feeling “stuck.”
No one wants a life of regrets, so go, over rate your abilities, jump in too quickly— you’ll get there, eventually.
* As I embark on a new literary adventure, I’ll be honest and say that I feel a little over whelmed with the tasks ahead of me; however, I will side on the “over-rating my abilities” scale and go forth. I believe that as long as I give this undertaking my time and attention, and never quit, I will eventually get the job done. -Mix
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