Are You Experienced?

“…Have you ever really been experienced?”
- Jimi Hendrix

In many cases, people gain respect and appreciation by simply putting in time at something. I’d venture to guess there’s a person you work with who’s, “been there forever”. I’m guessing they're fairly likable, get their job done and are reliable (always have been). But in other cases, these people should have moved on a long time ago. Not to be mean, but they’re taking up a valuable position a more eager (no, not always younger) person would love to have. How many people can you think of even getting recognition, not for BETTER job performance, but for simply making it year after year? That’s certainly admirable I suppose, as most working adults will change careers multiple times before the age of 30. But when comparing the two characters…who would YOU rather mimic? Would you like to be the employee improving their professional career each year or be the person who’s simply been at their job longest?

I remember being told that 20+ years of repeating your 1st year experience doesn’t make you a successful teacher. True enough. I don’t think any of us would claim optimal performance at anything after only a year. Still, how many of us are determined enough (or have the work-ethic) to keep getting better when we’re surrounded with people getting by on status-quo? The famous words given credit to Einstein say; “the mark of insanity is repeating the same action over and over again, expecting different results.” We all want positive and successful results, but few like the personal change involved to get it. Truth be told, this is a commentary on human nature in many ways. Because we all enjoy our comfort zones and would enjoy better jobs, houses, and overall success in life. And we’d love to wake up one day and see that’s it’s happened with little to zero effort.

See only by learning from, and then adapting/changing from our experiences can we ever claim to be better at what we do! That’s a universal fact. Those of us unable to recognize where we’ve failed or need improvement will always just be “putting in time”. It may be a hippie 60’s song, but we all need to ask ourselves how experienced we really are.