Here's to Taking Risks!

I have decided to take a risk. Risks, for me, are scary, and this is because I grew up with a fear of failure. I developed this habit of thinking that my only way of being was perfection. And as you could imagine, this often made it difficult to try new things, especially if I knew I wouldn’t succeed at them immediately. As an adult, I recognize how this has hindered my opportunity to experience the gift of failure. The gift of mistakes. Intellectually, I am very aware of all the lessons we have to the chance to learn when we experience a “failure”.  Our experiences with messing up can be great teachers of life. I liken it to learning how to ride a bike for the first time as children. When we first get on the bike, we are terrified of being let go by the adult who is helping us. Our balance is shaky and, honestly, we are more afraid of falling than we are excited to succeed and actually peddle on down the road. But what I recognize is that it is through the experience of trying over and over again that we’re able to figure out the balance that works for us. We can steer in a way that makes sense for the direction we intend to go. We even invite additional challenge and difficulty by riding on different terrains, experiencing different elevation, and recognizing how to adjust in order to keep the bike moving forward.

As I’ve stated before, rationally, all of this makes sense. However, when I go to do something new, I find myself falling into the bad habit of trying to plan my way out of failure. I make a goal to move in a certain direction, then I think about a Plan B in case Plan A doesn’t go as expected. Plan C may be helpful to catch all of the potential mistakes, but a Plan D sounds like a good addition. I have spent more time plotting the experience than having the experience, and it is maddening! Heck, writing this blog post, my very first blog post, is a struggle because I find myself criticizing the way I put thoughts into words. Will the people reading this understand? Does it make sense when I write it like this? Am I fooling myself by even putting this out there?

Here is the truth. I want to experience the lessons of making a mistake. I want to learn how to readjust in the moment when the environment calls for it. I want to be adaptable, and more than anything, I want to trust my instincts when adaptation is called for. That is why I am here.

I have decided to take on the journey of coaching over the course of the past couple years. I have had this nagging feeling telling me to lean into coaching and the profession. How I got here will have to be a story for another day, but the truth of the matter is that even getting to this point has been quite a ride. Though I’ve come very far and have learned a lot about myself, the lessons that I really need to learn so that I overcome my Type A perfectionist ways are behind this one obstacle. I finally accept that there is only so much learning I can do from a book or the comfort of sitting safely in my chair. At some point I must get in the field and take the risk. I have to get on the bike. I heard somewhere that we should do it scared, the thing that scares us the most. We should do that thing anyway, especially when it means growth and expansion. So, this is me trying. This is me doing it scared and doing it anyway.

I am not sure who needs this, and I am not even sure who will read this, but I desire to take you on this journey with me as I work toward full-time coaching. I don’t know where this will take me. I don’t know how this will challenge me or what obstacles lie ahead. But what I do know is this: I am trusting that all will be well, and it will be for my good. I am choosing to put one foot in front of the other and not worry about what lays 30-feet down the line. Just as I trust the headlights on my car to show me the way at night, even when I can only see so much ahead of me at a time, I am choosing to believe that all will be revealed in this journey as I keep going.

As I prepare for this new ride, I hope you follow along. I hope that this journey I’m taking will serve as a reminder to you to do it scared, to do it anyway. I trust that by the end of this, maybe just maybe, we all will be in a place beyond our wildest dreams. Buckle in.