Tuesday Tip | Expect to be rather terrible at first.
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When you are trying something new, whether it's budgeting, bread baking, menu planning, cooking, sewing, or any number of other things, you should expect to be rather terrible at first.
Very few people are experts at things right away, and you are probably no exception.
If you expect greatness at your first attempt, you will be prone to quitting when your first efforts don't meet your standards.
("I'm a failure! I'll never be able to do this! How come everyone else is good at this and I'm not?")
But if you can look at your iffy first attempts as normal steps on the way to mastery, you will be motivated to carry on.
In The Little Book of Talent, Daniel Coyle says, "Treat your early efforts as experiments, not verdicts."
In other words, if your first loaf of bread is a little flat, here's what it doesn't mean: You're never going to be able to make a good loaf of bread.
It just means that you are a beginner, and beginners do not produce loaves that are as good as an experienced baker's loaves.
Most of us can develop good skills if we will hang in there and practice.
And coming into that practice with some reasonable expectations can actually help us want to keep on practicing.
P.S. This post is not about baking per se, but in case you're interested in taking up yeast baking, here's a list of all my yeast bread recipes.
If you want some no-knead beginner recipes, you could try:
or
And probably the easiest kneading bread recipe I have is the one for French bread.
One of the phrases I live by is...
Anything worth doing, is worth doing poorly, until you learn to do it well.
Malcolm Gladwell wrote in his book "Outliers" about success and the 10,000 hours rule. It sounds daunting but Gladwell writes that a person needs 10,000 hours of practice to be an expert.
I am sure I can be good enough with much less.
I needed to hear this today....I've recently been promoted to "team leader", taking on 10+ direct reports, and I've inherited someone else's mess to clean up and get our team back on track. I'm overwhelmed with thoughts of complete failure but you are right, I need to set some expectations that I'm going to fail before I get it right. THANK YOU!!!!
Oof! One step at a time. Even if you don't know the whole path, start on the first steps while you figure out the overall plan. Best of luck. On the plus side, your predecessor has set the bar really low. It sounds like it won't take very much to make the situation better than you found it.
Ahh William, that made me laugh - you are right too. I would add most reasonable people would acknowledge you are new in the role & cut you a bit of slack. I would add listen a lot but weigh up what you hear carefully with what you see & experience as well.
You got this, girl!
Most people want to do their work well, and from your brief description, it seems they will be ready for a change for the good with you! Be honest, be open, and say thank you a lot! You can do this!
I'm one of those who gets discouraged, but I generally will make myself keep plugging away at it if I really wanted to learn to do it.
I baked bread a lot before I had to give up gluten, and it got easier and easier to make over time. I had a friend who tried numerous times to make bread and failed every time. She asked for one of my stand-by no-fail recipes, and it failed, so I suggested we go over that recipe step by step to see what could have happened. I figured it out in just a second when she said, "Okay, I start by pouring the boiling water over the yeast..."
I still chuckle a little bit when I think of that. The recipes gave the correct temperature range for the water, but she didn't have a cooking thermometer, and she thought that tap water wouldn't be hot enough, so she just boiled it, to make sure it was "hot enough."
Ok, that's a hilarious story. That poor yeast never had a chance!
Sometimes there is no substitute for watching someone else. My mum had a recipe she made up once & I love it, I asked her how she made it, what she put it etc but it just turned out bland. I finally asked to watch her make it. I discovered real quantities ( she was a blob of this, a bit of that) & to learn I had carefully prepped all my veg before starting to discover she would cut them up & add as she cooked so by the time the dish was half done the vegies had sautéed & sweetened in flavour before she added the liquid - now I can make it & it tastes just like hers
I've often asked people, including our five children, "Did you learn to walk the first time you tried? Did you quit after falling down the first time? Then you learned to walk, and talk, without quitting, both complex skills. So you can learn just about anything. Keep practicing and don't give up!"
At age 61 I'm learning Korean! It's hard and often discouraging, but I remember my own advice and keep going. I can do hard things!
One of the sayings our family tries to live by comes from Ms Frizzle of the Magic School Bus: Take Chances, make mistakes, get messy! I reminded myself of that a lot this past weekend as I struggled with a finicky pump. I definitely mastered the messy--and wet-part!
I had to laugh, because we're watching The Magic School Bus as I type this! I've been repeating the Friz's words to my daughter a lot lately. 🙂
oh, have you ever got my number here - me trying to cook....
I need to remind myself of this all the time. I took a Native American pine needle basket making class a couple of weeks ago. I was so disappointed that, as much as I tried, my stitches were crazy and didn't form the neat patterns in the sample baskets. And then I realized, hey, I have never done this before. Of course my stitches don't make a neat pattern. I still made a pretty neat basket for a beginner. And so did everyone else in the class.
SO SO true. Our kids’ school teaches “the power of yet”. I’m not good at baking bread...YET! I don’t know how to sew a dress...YET! I can’t run 3 miles...YET!
Our daughter really enjoys it when she’s frustrated and I remind her of this 😉
What do you mean I'm not going to be an expert on my first go?!! I love this post - so timely for me thank you, I feel so much better about some of my failures right now & inspired to go learn something 🙂
mhmm... I often have to remind myself of this as I homeschool my kids. Somehow I think that they should know all the things that I have mentioned once or twice. I forget that they're beginners at this whole learning thing.
What I find boring, is important practice for them.
This, of course, also relates to my own life. I've been dabbling in playing the ukelele for a year or so, but ain't that great. I have to remind myself that practice does matter and simply knowing where my fingers should go does not translate into them actually going there.
This is encouraging and gives me hope! Some things just come easy to me, like cooking and baking, so I think that sewing and home repairs should also be naturally easy for me and get frustrated! I will be more patient with myself and others. Now I just need to find the time to practice skills! And that in itself (time management) is a skill, so...
This is a concept I repeat constantly to my 5 year old (tomorrow!) daughter. Things get better with practice. I'm usually pretty good at remembering this for myself...mostly because I'm stubborn and refuse to be defeated by whatever project I'm currently attempting. Doesn't mean there aren't a few tears and screams of frustration along the way, though. 😉
I was unable to pin all your bread recipes at once by clicking on the top picture. Is it working?
Hmm. If you pin that photo, it should pin the page where my bread recipes are linked.