I was out climbing with my son earlier this week. He's home from college on break; he got serious about climbing last year and dragged me into it. My first route was pretty technical (for me) and there were a couple points when I was about to stop but I pushed through and made it to the top. When I got down, my son had some wise advice. He said I will improve if I don't worry about falling and If I'm not falling, I'm not pushing myself hard enough.
I came across a set of videos on Yahoo; The Failure Club. This was created as a reality TV show that never got picked up by a network, but it's along the same lines as my climbing; go do something without fear of failure…even expect failure…and see what happens.
It's easy to play it safe at work. We don't want to stand out as a trouble maker or risk taker, especially during an economic slowdown. But is that the best choice? If we knew our boss wouldn't penalize us if we failed, how much risk would we take? What could we achieve?
If you're like a lot of people, you came up with some resolutions at New Years. How many risky items are on your list? How many new things are you going to try? How many things that you could fail at? When I'm climbing and not having a good day, it usually isn't because I'm falling; it's usually because I'm afraid to try and I convince myself that I can't do it. So get rid of the self-doubt and don't be afraid.
2 comments:
I think that principle follows for most things in life and PM. The art of letting go of the illusion of control is what is invaluable.
I've come to believe that if you want to get something done, you have to let go of the fear of it not working. I read in a book called Where's My Zen? about the failure-success dichotomy, and about opposites in general - and it's not the one or the other that matters, it's the thing that failure and success are both a part of. So if we stop getting caught up in the opposites and just let go of the thing... we can be a lot happier.
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