Learning to Be the Beginner Again
I’ve spent most of my life being the strong one.
The fast one.
The disciplined one.
Elite athlete. Competitive swimmer. IRONMAN finisher. Snowboarder. Mountain biker.
I know what it feels like to train hard, to master form, to understand strategy, to push my body past comfort and into performance. I know how to be prepared. I know how to win.
And then I picked up a pickleball paddle.
The Shock of Starting Over
Let me be honest. Pickleball humbled me.
Not physically. Not from an endurance standpoint. But technically? Strategically? Socially? Completely.
Open play is where it gets real. You rotate courts. Winners stay. And when there are more players than courts, someone waits.
Sometimes that someone is me.
I’ve stood there, paddle in hand, watching others get called onto the court while I wait for someone to say, “Lisa, you’re up.”
And occasionally… I’m the last one picked.
If you’ve always been competent, capable, and competitive, being the beginner is uncomfortable. Being visibly less skilled than others is humbling. Being chosen last? That hits deeper than we like to admit.
Ego vs. Growth
Here’s what I realized. It’s not the game that’s hard. It’s the ego.
My brain knows I’m athletic. My history proves I can master complex things. But in that moment—when someone else is chosen before me—it whispers, Lisa:
“Maybe you’re not good at this.”
“Maybe you don’t belong here.”
“Maybe this isn’t your sport.”
Sound familiar?
This is what growth feels like.
• It feels exposed.
• It feels uncertain.
• It feels like you’re operating without your usual armor.
The Invisible Work of Becoming Better
What people don’t see is the internal recalibration happening.
I’m studying footwork.
Learning scoring and court positioning.
Understanding the soft game.
Practicing patience instead of power.
Pickleball isn’t about brute strength. It’s about touch. Timing. Strategy. Discipline in small movements.
And that requires me to become a student again.
There’s something deeply refining about being new. You don’t have shortcuts. You don’t have a reputation. You don’t have past wins to lean on.
You only have effort.
When “Elite” Doesn’t Transfer
One of the biggest surprises? Athletic success doesn’t automatically translate.
Fitness helps. Competitive drive helps. But technical mastery is earned in every sport, every profession, every discipline.
You don’t get to skip the awkward phase.
You don’t get to bypass the learning curve.
You don’t get preferred treatment because you’ve succeeded somewhere else.
And honestly? That’s healthy.
It strips away entitlement and leaves you with something far more powerful: humility.
Being the Last One Picked
There’s something fascinating about standing on the sidelines.
You watch body language.
You observe team dynamics.
You see who communicates well and who doesn’t.
You notice who stays composed under pressure.
You learn more from waiting than you do from winning.
Being the last one picked forces you to decide:
Will you shrink?
Will you get defensive?
Will you quit?
Or will you stay?
Watch?
Learn?
Adjust?
GROWTH LIVES IN THAT DECISION.
The Professional Parallel
Trying something new in sport is uncomfortable. Trying something new in your profession can feel even riskier.
• Launching a new service.
• Shifting business models.
• Speaking for the first time.
• Changing systems.
• Walking away from something that once defined you.
In those moments, you are the beginner again.
You may feel behind.
You may feel exposed.
You may feel like everyone else knows the game better than you do.
But here’s what I’m learning on the pickleball court:
Being new does not mean being incapable.
Being last does not mean being lesser.
Being uncomfortable does not mean you’re in the wrong place.
It usually means you’re stretching.
The Discipline of Staying
Elite athletes understand something important: mastery is earned in repetition.
So I keep showing up.
I practice my dinks and serves.
I refine my resets.
I focus on positioning and accuracy.
I ask better players for coaching.
And slowly—very slowly—I’m not the automatic last pick anymore.
PROGRESS DOESN’T ANNOUNCE ITSELF LOUDLY…IT ACCUMULATES QUIETLY.
How Do You Cope?
When was the last time you tried something for the first time in your profession?
When was the last time you felt unsure?
Outpaced?
Behind?
Chosen after others?
How do you cope when you are the beginner again?
Do you lean into the discomfort—or retreat from it?
Growth rarely feels glamorous. It feels awkward. It feels humbling. It feels like waiting your turn.
But sometimes being the last one picked is exactly what builds the resilience you need for your next level.
And maybe the real win isn’t being picked first.
Maybe it’s having the courage to keep showing up until you don’t need to be picked at all.
The Real Victory
Here’s what pickleball is teaching me.
Mastery in one arena does not exempt you from humility in another.
Confidence built over decades can feel shaky when you’re learning something new. And that’s not failure—that’s expansion.
Being the last one picked didn’t diminish who I am as an athlete. It revealed who I am as a learner.
It reminded me that growth requires vulnerability.
That progress requires repetition.
And that ego must sometimes step aside so development can step in.
The truth is, I don’t want to only do the things I’m already good at. I want to stretch, refine, and stay teachable.
Because comfort doesn’t build capacity.
And if I’m honest? There’s something powerful about earning your way back to confidence instead of assuming it.
Your Move
Let me ask you a question:
Where are you the beginner right now?
Where are you avoiding growth because you don’t want to look inexperienced?
Where are you waiting to be “ready” instead of stepping onto the court?
Trying something new in your profession might feel just as humbling as open play on a pickleball court.
But that discomfort?
That’s the doorway.
Lean into it.
Stay in the rotation.
Let yourself be coached.
Show up again.
Because the goal isn’t to always be picked first.
The goal is to become so steady, so skilled, and so self-assured that you don’t wait to be chosen.
You choose yourself.
Now tell me—what are you learning for the first time right now?
How can I help?
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