According to the dictionary, incompetence is the inability to do something successfully. In my opinion, it is more than that. It is the habit of accepting failure or botched work, and making excuses for it.

Failure and mediocrity are incredibly addictive. You fail at something or do a poor job and the consequences are not good but not so bad. You lost something, but you did not lose much. You were told off, you came up with an excuse or you apologized, but nothing changed.

Guess what will happen next time?

You will fail and be mediocre again, and again. And of course, always have a perfect excuse to justify everything—at the tip of the tongue.

The problem is that you have developed the habit of incompetence. Maybe it started back in your childhood, with parents so used to incompetence as you. But let’s not blame them completely for something that, in fact, is your choice. After all, you are no longer a child.

Maybe you have always been overprotected by people around you, who love you, and for this reason saved you from the consequences of your incompetence. In wanting to love you, they prevented you from learning the hard lessons that only the shame of failure and the loss of something valuable can teach.

The good news is that competence is also a habit. You can reverse your way of thinking, speaking and acting, and stop being a serial incompetent.

Start by dropping all the excuses. Raise your standards. Expect only the best from yourself and others. Repeat the process.

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