The Curse of the Competent

I can’t believe I have not written about this until now. It’s an observation that has turned into an insight about life, and it’s a Rob original (as opposed to all the other insights I rip off from smart people I’ve read, then proceed to forget where I read it and claim it as my own).

The seed for this insight has been my own life experience. You see I think I have pretty good judgement. I value wisdom and take time to think things through. I have learned to trust my judgement because it is right %99 of the time. But that’s just it… when I hit that %1 (which happens rarely but consistently), I fall hard. Most people would think that sounds like a pretty good track record, so I should stop complaining and give up on my quest for perfection; and they would be right. Accept that this revelation exposes an interesting truth; I trust my own judgement too much, and I will be doomed to repeat those one- percent-hard-falls as long as I do. This is the curse of the competent.

If you are like me and suffer from this curse, if you trust your own judgement and think a little too highly of your wisdom consider this. Is it possible to benefit fully from one’s own wisdom and good judgement, while at the same time not trusting it completely? If that sounds like a rhetorical question it probably is. It’s been my best strategy in dealing with the curse. I remember that my tried and tested wisdom will fail me inevitably. This begs the question, what better means of decision making is there? For me the answer lies with the creator of wisdom, God. When I subject my good judgement to His greater wisdom it is an act of humility, of worship. God gets to be God in my life and I get to learn from my mistakes, and hopefully make less of them.