A few weeks ago this memory popped up on Facebook from when I made my first public announcement about taking on external coaching clients.
You might look at this and see this memory as an exciting announcement. You might read this and sense confidence in the words. You might feel this was a bold step. Or you might even look at this and feel like there isn’t anything remarkable at all. What you don’t see in this post is the hundreds of hours of uncomfortable training. The months of working with my own coach to own my worth. The week of writing and rewriting the post. What you don’t see is how nervous I was, heart racing as I reviewed and reviewed and reviewed again. What this doesn’t show is how the moment I hit publish, I quickly went on a walk with Nick so that I couldn’t be there for any of the responses.
To be honest I am not even sure I was clear on what was scarier – that people would respond or that they wouldn’t. Somehow the fear of success was looming as large as the fear of failure. What was clear is that I knew this was a turning point. While I didn’t know where the path was going to take me, this moment of discomfort was stretching me into something new.
This moment felt big, disruptive, and uncomfortable. Because it was. But just because something feels big or hard or terrifying in the moment doesn’t mean it will always feel that way.
This feels timely as we continue navigating this world that feels big, disruptive and uncomfortable.
We are all being stretched into something new. We are being pushed outside of our comfort zones. My dear friend Anne Tomkinson powerfully said in a recent conversation – Our abilities are far greater than our comfort zone.
Now I can look back and appreciate the moment because it was a milestone in my journey to be who I am today and to do the work that is meaningful.
My hope is that there will come a point when we can all look back at this time as a moment that shaped who we are as leaders, as organizations, as communities, as friends, as families, as humans.
