Do You Encourage Others To Begin Something New?
Hello all,
Beginning something new can be really hard for people. They get scared they will fail, so they don’t even start. The right answer syndrome is the most likely culprit. Years of being trained to only see one answer acts as an anti-catalyst. People don’t want to be wrong. They don’t want to fail. They don’t want to feel embarrassed.
We all need encouragement to try new things, to go for new adventures, to try all the things we want to do but that often get relegated to life’s back burner. I had a boyfriend encourage me to sing when I’d been told I had a terrible voice. As it turns out, I didn’t have a terrible voice. His encouragement changed my life. Make that, saved my life. It had a ripple effect across my entire being – from my enthusiasm to my attitude to my self-esteem. Thank you ex-boyfriend!
I had the Encouragement Booth several years back at Ashland Day. I loved hearing what people wanted to do and then encouraging them to do it.
I read a recent article in a magazine that said innovative ideas were drying up and they didn’t know why.
Well, this is why. If you train folks to not take chances, they grow up to not take chances. Constant testing makes folks right answer-centric. What you end up with is a world that idolizes high test scores, thinking it’s a proxy for intelligence. Many forms of intelligence exist in the world. It’s about time we recognized and embraced and encouraged all of them. I believe everyone has a special intelligence they need to be encouraged to use.
Can you imagine our world if we all took chances? If we all went for it? Read the tweets on twitter – many of them are from folks who want to do something new, something else, but they can’t seem to rev up the inner engines to do so.
Just discovered that September 12th is National Encouragement Day, which is some form of kismet because the day I did the encouragement booth was right around that date and I didn’t even realize it. I’m going to gear up for National Encouragement Day on the local level. Maybe get some arts groups together to hold an open house? Writing groups?
The day is the creative brain child of the Encouragement Foundation in Arkansas. Click on the name and it will take you there.
I’m excited just thinking about it.
What would you like to be encouraged to do? Please share below. I want to encourage you … Or, perhaps mention your forays into the encouragement world — who encouraged you to take a chance?
Thanks, G.
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This is wild. My birthday is that very day and I am such the person who stands behind people and encourages them to take the chance; to spread their wings and fly. The challenge is, at times, that I find that I can’t give the same to myself to the extent I need and finding someone to encourage me… well, that is the challenge!! We have to take chances – we have to create and learn and create more!
Hi E,
Must be kismet that you share the same day of birth at Encouragement Day. I find that it’s easier to encourage others than it is to encourage ourselves, so I relate completely to what you say here.
Maybe we need encouragement partners?
Thanks for stopping by! G.
Thanks for this — I think it’s very important to be surrounded by people who see when I’m not pursuing what I want and uncompromisingly ask why I’m not doing it. I want to be encouraged to keep putting music out there, even if people I know from my old, more risk-averse life might see it.
Chris,
It sounds like those old friends need to see/hear your music! To loosen up themselves … When we become more risk-centric it can have a boomerang affect on others. Who go through life shrouded in so much safety you never really live while you are alive.
Thanks, G.
You’re such a natural born encourager, G. I’ve always loved hearing about your encouragement booth and how cool is it that there’s actually a day for it?
I feel lucky to be in a profession where I’m called to encourage people. After all these years what keeps coming up is trust: we don’t spread our wings because we don’t trust that no matter what happens when we take the leap, we’ll be okay. So what I want for all of us is encouragement to trust: our creativity, our resilience, even our mistakes.
Hi Patty,
I’m with you on people not trusting that it will be o.k. when they spread their wings and take the leap. It’s as if we “clip” folks wings at a young age. (Luckily they can grow back once used again.)
Glad to be in the company of a fellow encourager-ess!
Appreciate you joining our chat.
G.
This post was a lightbulb for me… that when I’m about to take a risk (love taking risks) I am hoping the choice is “right”. I recently made a choice to let go of a part-time job that wasn’t “bad” but I noticed every time I talked myself into to keeping the job for a few more months, I felt myself deaden inside. It was just draining, overall, too much. So I took another step towards the life I really want, the life of mothering and writing. And this time, I told myself, “I’ll figure it out.” It doesn’t have to be “right”, it just has to feel right. And taking the risk feels right. In fact, I’m relieved.
Hi Angie,
The dead feeling inside sounds like your inner wise woman showing you the way out of an un-alive limbo place. It’s amazing how a few more months can turn into years or even decades when you turn around and look back. Congrats on following the path toward mothering and writing and/or some combo weaving them together.
Here’s to taking risks! How can we make that the norm?
Talk to you soon!
G.
Thoughful and motivating piece. Love the idea of a National Encouragement Day though encouragement needs to be constant to have effect. By all means, encourage others to start something new – if the “something new” is feasible and realistic. If not for encouragement from others, I might have given up on writing my books long ago. On the other hand, encouragement is not always helpful especially where it concerns unreal expectations. I’m still wary, after two decades, when people want to start a new food business or a store. My disastrous venture into the restaurant business came about mainly because so many other people encouraged me to do so. I should have heeded a friend’s advice. “Just because you can play the piano it doesn’t mean you can give a concert.”
Hi Penelope!
Food businesses can be a hard slog because the margins aren’t there without selling liquor or something else. I’ve discovered as a biz owner that you need 2 or 3 streams of income. 1) to keep myself interested 2) as a protection against the natural ups and downs of businesses areas. It makes me wonder if you couldn’t have somehow married the writing and the restaurant. Like offered writing classes. That would have been truly unique!
Thanks for stopping in. I need to post a new essay … G.