September 20, 2026

You don't have to be good to start, but you do have to start to be good.

If you're here, you probably have a growth mindset and don't even realise it (this is a good thing).

A growth mindset is someone with the belief that, through hard work and determination, you are capable of improving your intelligence, skills and talents (Dweck, 2006). It is someone who sees a challenge and is eager to give it a go and is okay with failing (because failures hold the greatest lessons).

A fixed mindset however, is someone who believes that they are born the way they are and there is no changing that. They believe that the skills they hold are all they will have and hate being put in situations that show that they don't know something (Nervahealth.com, 2025).

After those brief descriptions, which one are you? If you said 'I definitely have a growth mindset,' congratulations! You are open to new experiences and challenges which will lead to you growing as an individual. If you said 'I have a fixed mindset' well then, it's time to change that. It's also very possible to change that (I know, because I did it).

You see, growing up I was a very shy kid and doing anything outside my comfort zone or new, I found extremely overwhelming because I didn't want to suck at it. As I got older (and since having lived abroad alone) this changed. I forced myself into uncomfortable situations - solo travelling, posting content, learning the guitar - and in each and every one of these facets of my life, initially, I sucked at them. As I should've, I'd never done any of them before.

Remember back to when you were a kid and you started a sport or learnt to play an instrument. Were you good when you started? If you say yes you're lying to yourself. As kids, we all sucked, at everything. The thing was, society knows we're meant to be bad at it because we're kids learning for the first time. It's also cute because we're uncoordinated kids trying to kick a ball around or missing keys on the piano. Society tends to judge adults for trying new things because it's not 'cool' to suck at something when you're a grown person, I think we should be treating new experiences like we do for kids.

So that creates a question: How am I meant to start something new if I can't suck at it for a while without being judged?

Solo travelling taught me how to chat to strangers and make new friends, posting content taught me how to interact with a camera and edit videos, learning the guitar taught me patience and delayed gratification as well as rhythm and timing. Was I good at any of these when I started? Absolutely not.

I was a shy guy going up to randoms and muddling my words, heart racing. I was the guy too scared to film videos in public due to the thought of randoms judging me and I was the guy that held off learning the guitar his whole life because he didn't want people to see him suck at it.

The greatest change comes from the uncomfortable

This is your sign to start developing your growth mindset. Start small, challenge yourself to do 1 uncomfortable thing a day, a week, a month, anything. We all have to start somewhere. And learn to be okay with sucking for a while, because you will. This is what I've built the 'Habiter.' community for, people who want to change and challenge themselves for the better.

— Chris