Courage to make mistakes and learn

Is fear self-focused?

I was reflecting on a recent blog by Seth Godin where he said “Fear is self-focused. And generosity is about others. "How can I help?"1 It’s a very short blog and perhaps I was projecting on what its message was to me. I originally intended to share each future newsletter in chronological order, but I’ve leaned into what is sparking curiosity in the moment. This week I’ll focus on leaning into experimentation and how coaching creates space for that.

In our daily lives, experimentation is uncomfortable and implies we don’t have the answers. All of this is true…but how can I be agile and flexible without being open to experimentation? What am I foregoing by not exploring my growing edges?

How many times have we not been generous to ourselves because it’s uncomfortable? We fear the unknown.

Through my coaching experiences, I have learned that I can play with that fear in a safe space where I’m heard and given time to process through my discomfort. Sometimes that fear is subsided quickly because my coach plays with the extremes of an idea ….what could go wrong? what if you were in that spot…what’s possible to occur? Other times, I’d take several sessions to overcome the ‘irrational’ fear that’s there. Either way, the idea of experimentation and leaning into these places of thought and discord allows for new realizations to come to light.

The key thing that I want to raise is that leaning into experimentation is intentional and requires us to change mindsets, skills and behaviours to embrace uncertainty. We don’t need to know or control the outcome. Rather we should trust the experience and pivot when we generate, evaluate, prioritize new ideas, and design new experiments to test them…..while seeking and giving constructive feedback to learn and improve. Perhaps, what I’m offering here sounds like a pipe dream, but what if a small experiment generates a profound difference. The simplest example that comes to mind is introducing a thirty minute walk in our week and then increasing that to two walks and then three and so on. This is a simple shift we are told that will improve our physical fitness immensely and perhaps, gives us an opportunity to lean into something new and enjoyable.

Where coaching is a powerful tool is that it allows for us to fail fast and learn faster through the space that the coach creates for us.

“It's more than a shift in narrative. It's a shift in intent.” - Seth Godin