I feel stupid when I don’t know things, especially when it’s something I believe I should know.
I live in Memphis, TN, home of literally the best BBQ on earth. (Fight me!) Unfortunately I’m not the best grill-master, and I probably should be. In this season of life, being in front of delicious food is not as productive or healthy as being in front of a squat rack. So I don’t think I want to be a grill-master, and that makes me appreciate people more when they post their delicious steaks on social media.
I feel stupid then I learn new things about marriage, fatherhood, or even shooting.
“Why didn’t I come up with that?”
“Man I should’ve thought of that.”
Sometimes I just need to accept the fact that I don’t know everything, and appreciate the wisdom and advice of my friends & family.
As far as shooting goes, I often see clients and friends that beat themselves up. They didn’t do well in whatever test/qual/drill.
“I usually shoot way better than this.”
“Why am I screwing this up?”
“I’m struggling. This should’ve been easy.”
And there’s a ton of reasons for this. Maybe our level of skill took a hit today. Perhaps there have been too many changes recently, or even that day.
The best I can say is that when we shoot we should remove ourselves from the emotional attachment. We often set up preconceived expectations of our outcomes, and anything short of those expectations make us emotional. Well, at least it does for me.
"I usually do this in sub-4 seconds."
"I need to clean this drill."
"I'm gonna burn this mutha down!"
"I haven't practiced this in forever."
How about we trust ourselves? Let’s just have fun with this. Focus on living in the process. Whatever the results are, only allow them to only affect how we adjust the process. We should not be judging ourselves by what the timer says or where the holes are in the target. We should be thinking of how much of the process of shooting we can be aware of, and of what we can recall afterwards.
Did I build my grip? Did I see my sights? Was I aware of the sights as I pressed the trigger? Did my sights return to zero? Was that trigger press clean?
Was I overthinking?
No. You’re not stupid. If anything, it takes a ton of self-awareness to admit that you need help, and it takes a lot of emotional fitness to seek help. That counts for everything. Fatherhood, marriage, shooting, everything.
My grilling skills are gonna have to wait.