by Caroline Leach | Sep 11, 2023 | Change, Leadership, Learning
When you’re on unfamiliar ground, how do you lead through discomfort?
Our inner critics can come out when we’re learning something new. When we’re leading through a challenge. When we’re not sure what to do next.
This inner critic may be trying to protect us from disaster by telling us we don’t know what we’re doing. We’re going to fail. We should stop right now.
But, really, how true is that inner critic?
What if we just kept going instead?
Of course, it can help to assess risk. It can be valuable to make course corrections. It can be wise to seek feedback and advice.
But overall, keep moving forward.
This uncomfortable feeling has surfaced for me as I commit to learning Spanish over the next few years.
I’m taking Spanish 1 at a local community college. More here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/leachcaroline_learning-spanish-activity-7103129806455672832-8RjY?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
After the first week of class, my inner critic was in overdrive. It’s hard to memorize the vocabulary and accent marks. I’m not pronouncing the alphabet correctly. I didn’t get 100% on a few of my homework assignments.
The conclusion? I should just quit now.
But what if I got curious instead? What if I looked at the discomfort head on? What if I saw being uncomfortable as a sign of growth?
And the most important: what if I let go of perfection on my learning journey?
It takes time to learn anything new. There are going to be difficulties along the way. And I’m here for it. I’m okay being uncomfortable for a while.
How about you?
by Caroline Leach | Jun 29, 2021 | Change, Learning
A colleague tipped me off to this week’s Aspen Ideas Festival. What an inspirational collection of people and ideas. It’s juxtaposed onto this strange transitional time we’re all living through as we emerge from 16 months of a global pandemic in the U.S.
A favorite talk came from Arthur Brooks. He’s a professor, an author, a podcaster, a thinker and so much more. What he got me thinking about is not simply recovering from post-pandemic trauma, but how to turn the experience into one of growth.
Reframing the months-long experience of intense uncertainty, day after day, into one of growing from it is incredibly powerful. Like a weight being lifted off one’s shoulders.
As you reflect on your life over the last year during Covid-19, what did you learn? What did you accomplish that you didn’t think you could? (And yes, sheer survival counts as a major accomplishment.) How did you grow and change?
by Caroline Leach | Dec 31, 2020 | Change, Leadership, Learning
What do you share on social media when life is difficult? When life is even busier than normal because of pressures that come with living in the Covid era?
For me it’s meant I haven’t posted on social media as much in the last few months. In part it’s because my business is growing — consulting, coaching, speaking, and teaching — and I have more work to do. That’s a good thing. It’s a blessing in this environment.
Yet it also brings new pressures. How do I continue to deliver my best work? How do I scale my business to the next level? How do I automate certain processes and which ones?
The other part is just how difficult it’s been. The struggle. The juggle. The terror of wondering, day after day, will everything work out?
This part comes mostly from the steakhouse my husband opened in the summer of 2020, after two years in the making. The dream became reality, and Covid turned it into a nightmare. And we have lots of company in this strange space.
The good news is people love the restaurant. Tonight we’re delivering three times of the number of New Year’s Eve meals we estimated.
The bad news is takeout and delivery is not a sustainable business model. I understand why indoor and outdoor dining has been prohibited to help stop the spread of Covid. What’s harder is moving forward day after day when most of your ability to operate isn’t there, with 260 empty seats.
This has all run headlong into my guiding mantra to only share positive news and information on social media. My focus is providing insight and inspiration about personal branding, social media, and leadership that others may find valuable in their own professional lives.
Some words in a book I read this month crystallized the downside of this approach. “This is where we are now, endlessly cheerleading ourselves into positivity while erasing the dirty underside of real life,” says Katherine May. She’s the author of Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times.
The dirty underside of life right now, for many people, is it’s really hard. Life is difficult. It always has been, but the last year has brought it into sharp relief.
It’s okay to feel down. It’s okay to feel discouraged. It’s also good to connect with others and ourselves to be with the reality, at the same time as we strive to improve upon it. The dirty underside of real life is present. And that brings new challenges. Many of them are outside of our control. But our response remains within our control.
In my case, my operational, marketing, and human resources skills are increasing exponentially because things need to get done at the restaurant, and I’m doing them, working with a great team my husband has formed. Setting the uncertainty aside, this “dirty underside” is also a huge period of growth.
So I’m consciously shifting my mindset, as a strategy to get through this. The reality is present and unchangeable and a huge bummer. What is changing is me.
Also, a year goes by in a flash. Next year has the potential to be very different. Although Covid is sadly spiking now, a vaccine is on the way. There is light at the end of the tunnel. We will all have new skills, experiences, and perspectives from this time that we can apply to the future.
How about you? What parts of your real life are you struggling with? How are you growing and transforming as a result? What will be different and better a year from now?
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