This morning while checking Twitter and LinkedIn as is my daily habit, I stumbled across a great little article by Debra Walton, Chief Content Officer at Thomson Reuters. Speaking about the choices successful women make, Walton writes, “feeling uncomfortable and insecure is the natural result of stretching yourself, of pushing your limits. If you never get that feeling, you are not trying hard enough.”
Aha! So I’m not the only one who feels like I’m in over my head at times. Good to know. I’ve spent the better part of three decades lost in the cerebral frenzy of second-guessing my actions sometimes. Perhaps nowhere more so than in my work.
I’ve found myself tackling projects for clients which I arguably did not have the expertise or experience to tackle. I began my writing career by reporting on new technology in Silicon Valley. And I did it for free. Some call it silly, but I called it opportunity. And a way to keep my mind busy. When I later accepted a job with a local start-up as head of their communications some years ago, I had never worked in a communications department- let alone worked for a startup.
I tackled these projects not because they made me feel comfortable, but because they offered a new opportunity for growth, exploration, career and much more.
By accepting new opportunities that fall out of our ‘comfort zones’, we climb another rung on the ladder of life. Had I never written a 500 word article, I wouldn’t have ever learned what it takes to write a 2,000 word article. Had I lacked the experience working for a start-up, I wouldn’t have realized that it’s a lot like working for yourself- you need to be your own best resource and make opportunities for the organization where once there were none.
Wayne Gretzky was a master of self-discipline, achieving success far beyond that which anyone dared
Too often in work and in life we rest on our laurels. We think that we either cannot achieve our goals or that we’ll understand how to achieve them through some divine intervention and everything will turn out swell in the end. But I’m here to bust your bubble- and my own.
Life doesn’t work that way. Success- in all of its many forms- comes from a deep desire and the will to carry it out. We must identify what it is what we want. Next, we need to take baby steps as my mother often reminds me. For me and my writing career, this meant doing some things for free. Not fun. Not what I’d want to do again. But don’t close a door because it doesn’t look rosy on the outside. You really don’t know until you step inside what awaits. Lastly, we need to re-assess our vision of personal success- at work, at home, within our bodies and our minds- and make adjustments throughout our lives.
We have the bad habit as human beings of projecting our own ideas about success onto other people. When we see someone who has achieved what we want for ourselves, we tend to assume that they’ve ‘made it’ and that once they arrive, there is nothing more to do.
But nothing could be further from the truth. Successful people are always striving for more. And if they do achieve that which they have dreamed of and worked so hard for, they turn their attention to new things. Bill Gates could have easily retired in his tender 30’s, living forevermore as a billionaire many times over. But he didn’t. Instead, he and his wife formed one of the most influential grant-giving foundations in the world, boring full steam ahead to new endeavors, new problems to solve, and ultimately new satisfaction.
So the next time you fall victim to a thought of ‘not being good enough’, remind yourself that no of us are ever good enough. We all start somewhere. And when we do achieve that which we set as a goal, we turn our attention to a new opportunity, no matter how daunting it may seem.
One last quote for the day which is appropriate to close out the blog on:
“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races, one after the other.” -Walter Elliot
bonnie boglioli randall 