Competence is the Source of Joy

Some years ago, I briefly held the charge as a Land Acquisition Officer (LAO) for an important infrastructure project. The concerned officer was on leave and I was to hold the fort until he returned.

I was new to the service and hadn’t had any experience with land acquisition. My knowledge on the subject was shallow, limited to naming a few relevant laws. But the actual nitty-gritty and procedure for land acquisition? I had no clue. As my assignment was temporary, I didn’t feel compelled to go deep into the subject.

During this period, the District Collector held a weekly meeting to review the progress and it would fill me with dread.

I thought I could manage it for a couple of weeks and hand over the charge to the actual person, but the concerned officer extended his leave, prolonging my misery.

One day, I realised I couldn’t go on like this.

So I spent an entire week reading the act, the rules, the case laws, and the office files. The learning process was filled with a series of ‘aha’ moments helping me connect the topics discussed in the meetings with the law.

In fact, I would look forward to the weekly meetings, eager to make a meaningful contribution. I prepared notes and came up with ideas we could use to make speedy progress, convince the people, award them fair compensation and complete the acquisition.

That experience taught me a powerful lesson: we dread things we don’t understand, and the best way to overcome them is to become competent.

The following things usually go together:

• New Assignment —> Lack of Effort —> Incompetence —> Fear & Anxiety —> Task Avoidance —> Stagnation —> Deep Sense of Unhappiness
• New Assignment —> Effort —> Competence —> Confidence —> Urge to Improve —> Meaningful Progress —> Sense of Purpose and Accomplishment —> Joy

Rarely do we enjoy things we don’t understand. Conversely, it’s even rarer to find a skill we have mastered, but don’t enjoy.

Mastering a topic inevitably makes you passionate about it. That’s why we have people being obsessed about jobs that are usually thought of as boring.

Passionate cook. Passionate sanitation engineer. Passionate watchmaker. Passionate beekeeper and so on. These aren’t professions you usually associate with being highly paid or sought after.

Irrespective of their field, all passionate people derive a sense of purpose in these crafts precisely because they are good at what they do.  And it’s not a subjective feeling of competence. The real world acknowledges and gives feedback that what they do is valuable: in terms of customers or salary or recognition they get for their craft.

In the documentary, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, you see a man who has dedicated his life to making sushi. I bet he wakes up every morning with a sense of purpose: to make the best sushi in the world.

If being competent is critical to finding fulfillment and joy, why do we avoid it?

I come back to this quote from Derek Sivers: “Mastery is the best goal; the rich can’t buy it, the impatient can’t rush it, and the privileged can’t inherit it.”

Gaining competence is not easy. It requires weeks, months, or even years of practice and dedication. One must persist through obstacles, put in consistent effort, address weaknesses and build competence. But ours has become a generation that finds solace in 10-second dance reels and fleeting distractions. We fill our void with shallow entertainment that keeps us from gaining competence, making us miserable and unfulfilled.

Competence Precedes Passion

Passion isn’t a prerequisite for enjoying your work. I’ve learned that passion often comes later— once you get good at something that matters. You don’t miraculously know what you are passionate about. You will have interests and talents, and they are usually an indicator for you to explore them. Investigate those and build deep understanding and competence. That craftsmanship builds love for the subject, drawing you back to it again and again until, over years, you develop a passion.

So here’s my advice: pursue hard things. Strive to build competence in things you find interesting and important but have been avoiding. Competence builds confidence. It gives you a sense of meaning, and equips you to contribute meaningfully. This sense of drive, purpose, progress and contribution is powerful.