Calling someone an amateur is usually condescending, at least outside of certain sports. Someone says they paint and immediately adds: “Oh, but I’m just an amateur.”

Last I looked, there wasn’t a law against being bad at something. Why is it that we turn up our noses at anything we’re not a professional at? How is it frowned upon?

Your mission today is to learn why being an amateur is something to strive for, and how it can benefit you.

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Background: What does it actually mean?

You’ll probably say now: An amateur is the opposite of a professional, and that’s true. A professional does something as a career, for money; an amateur doesn’t. But that’s not where it ends.

You’ve often heard me emphasise that you needn’t make money with your passion for it to count, and for it to be a priority. But it goes further than this: Have you ever thought about what “amateur” means?

At its root, the word goes back to the Latin “amare”, which means to love. And while nowadays, “amateur” has taken on a disparaging meaning – when it comes to your passions or hobbies, I recommend you think of it as meaning “doing what you love”.

Task: Be an amateur!

Your task is to embrace being an amateur. Stop feeling ashamed to be bad at something. This isn’t just a feel-good message, either.

The negativity around being an amateur is what keeps so many people from starting something new. Lots of folks would love to try out a certain passion, hobby or interest, but they’re adults and have never done it before.

“I’m too old to learn an instrument,” is something I hear all the time. Who the heck made that a law? It’s nonsense! If you start playing the violin now, you might not become a famous soloist, but you can learn to play very decently if you invest regular practice for 5-10 years.

And that’s just one example. Whether it’s a sport, an art, a field of study – dive in and whole-heartedly be an amateur. Enjoy it! Life is too short to wait any longer.

Transcript

Here follows the transcripts of what’s said in the video. You’ll also find this text as subtitles in the video itself, which you can activate by clicking the symbol on the bottom right of the video.

So, when it comes to your passion, you're an amateur?

Great!

Hello, welcome to this week's Wild Spirits News. My name is Sibylle, and I help women between 40 and 60 to do lots of what they love and to find their unique life purpose. If any of this sounds interesting, check out my website, wildspiritscoaching.com.

Today's subject is 'Pursue your passion and be an amateur'. Calling somebody an amateur is usually meant in a disparaging way, or somebody says that they paint and then immediately adds: "Oh but I'm just an amateur." I don't know, but the last I looked, it wasn't a crime to be bad at something, so why do we turn up our noses at anything that we are less than a professional at? How is it frowned upon? Your mission today is to learn why being an amateur is something to strive for, and how it can benefit you.

Background

The background to this is titled 'What does it actually mean?' You'll probably say now, an amateur is the opposite of a pro, and that's true: A professional does something as a career or earns money with it, an amateur doesn't. But that's not where it ends.

You've often heard me say that you don't need to be a professional at your passion or hobby or interest in order to for it to be important, in order to make it a priority. But it goes a little further than that. Have you ever thought about what that word 'amateur' actually means? It turns out that at its root, the word goes back to the Latin word 'amare' which means 'to love', and while, again, nowadays it's usually used in a disparaging sense, I encourage you that when it comes to your passions, to think of being an amateur as being somebody who does what they love.

Task

The task is 'Be an amateur!' So your task today is to embrace being an amateur. Stop feel feeling ashamed to be bad at something. And this isn't just a feelgood-message either, by the way. The negativity around the word amateur is what keeps many people from trying out a new passion or hobby or interest for fear that they'll just be bad at it, which anybody is when they first do something, right, when they're a beginner. They might be really interested in that thing, but they're already an adult and they've never done it before and so they'll not do it.

How often do I hear people say: "Oh I'm too old now to start learning an instrument." Who made that a law? It's nonsense! If you start learning the violin now, you will probably not become an internationally famous soloist, but if you practice regularly and you do that for some years, you can still learn to play very decently.

And that is just one example. Whether it's a sport, an art or a craft, or an interest, a field of study - just dive in and be wholeheartedly an amateur at it, somebody who loves doing it. Enjoy it! Life is too short to wait any longer.

Let me know

And that brings me to the last point which is 'Let me know'. Where do you stand on this? Do you hesitate sometimes, is there maybe something- It's confession time: Is there maybe something that you've always wanted to try out and haven't done yet because you think it's maybe too late or you're too old or or you'll just be bad at it and you just don't feel comfortable at really being seen to suck at something new? There's no judgment here, we've all done it. I'd like you to think about it and if you'd like to leave me a message and leave me a comment below the video, let me know, or reply to the email that you got the video with, and I'll reply to every comment or I'll email you back, of course.

And like I said, if any of this sounds interesting and you'd like some more, then consider joining the community of Wild Spirits. Go to wildspiritscoaching.com and there you can sign up for the Wild Spirits Newsletter, that's 100% spam free, two emails per month, and I always include some actually useful information, extra articles, book recommendations and stuff like that. I'd love to have you. Have a beautiful week, and I'll see you soon. Bye!