Babies are great at being bad. When learning to speak, they babble incoherently, laughing along the way. When it’s time to walk, they tumble to the ground repeatedly and try again, completely unfazed by the failure. And within weeks of these first botched attempts, they are walking and have begun to speak. We all know that this is how it works – babies must fall to find their center of balance. Babies must practice making different noises before a word emerges. So why are we so encouraging when babies fail to walk successfully in the beginning but are so hard on ourselves when we try something new with less than perfect results? Ego. Babies aren’t out to prove a thing and have no sense of themselves being tied to accomplished. They have not developed that ‘me’ which is full of pride and embarrasses easily. This ego jumps in at our first messy attempt and tries to prevent us from moving forward so we don’t embarrass ourselves or worse, doesn’t even let us make the first attempt.
Try this: business coach advise is great unless you don’t use it. So the next time you are holding yourself back from trying something new, see it as an opportunity to try being good at being bad. And when you are feeling discouraged, be the encouraging adult who cheers on the baby. Congratulate yourself for the effort, notice the slightest improvement and tell yourself you are getting there.