Overcoming Fear
I've been working a great deal on professional development. I've never grown so much in so short a time. I'm looking for tips on how to raise my confidence and how to believe in myself more.
This week I submitted 2 ideas to an internal innovation website contest. I didn't win, but for a first try, both of my ideas were slightly above average in terms of votes for all ideas submitted company wide. That may seem like a loss, but if you consider how smart the people I work with are, I don't think so. In the past I would never have submitted them at all, just making excuses that my ideas wouldn't be taken seriously. You can't make the top 3 ideas if you never try, and you have to start somewhere. Mediocrity is a fine place to start because I'm not staying there. This is just my first try. Besides, average here is way above average in the world at large. It takes experience, influence, and popularity to get traction on an idea.
I'm finding out that the main thing holding me back from my dream job isn't skill or experience. It's fear. I'm afraid that I don't have experience. I'm afraid to fail.
I signed a contract last week for my special training that I'd be doing 3 things by March. One of those is applying for a job that I really want that is offered internally at my company. No matter what the results are, I need to toss my hat in the ring. When I signed that contract I tried to think of every reason in the world I shouldn't go for it. I explained to the mentoring group why it wouldn't work and why I was conflicted about doing it. I was shaking while signing that I would do it. The time for self-defeating internal talk is over. If I'm held back, it shouldn't be by me. No only means no for now. What's the worse that can happen? I hope the worse that can happen is they don't interview me and at least tell me what to work on to be qualified for that position if they don't think I am. The best that can happen is they see my passion, potential, and how fast I'm learning and give me a chance to grow in to that role. The medium thing that could happen (neither great nor terrible) is that they interview me so I can get practice interviewing, and they give me feedback. For me it isn't so much that I have to have the "job right now", it's that I want to get there and know I'm moving towards it. Besides, it's reporting to the one person I most want to work for, and opportunities don't come up that often. I feel like a crazy person to say the truth, which is, "I really want to be on your team. You want me because you don't have anyone who will work harder to make you not just look good, but BE good than I will. I'm willing to do what it takes."
My mentoring group told me that my confidence is the biggest problem, and that I need to spend the next few weeks doing anything I can that makes me feel powerful. It looks like more karaoke, and more Rockband on expert level is going to be upcoming. Also, more cooking and having friends over. I may not always be confident in my professional life, but in my personal life, I am a rockstar and have been basically unstoppable the last several years. I have the best team of loved ones possible, and it makes me feel more "me" than I ever have before.
If I can do one thing at work to make a bigger impact, it would be to be confident, be brave, and still be me.
This week I submitted 2 ideas to an internal innovation website contest. I didn't win, but for a first try, both of my ideas were slightly above average in terms of votes for all ideas submitted company wide. That may seem like a loss, but if you consider how smart the people I work with are, I don't think so. In the past I would never have submitted them at all, just making excuses that my ideas wouldn't be taken seriously. You can't make the top 3 ideas if you never try, and you have to start somewhere. Mediocrity is a fine place to start because I'm not staying there. This is just my first try. Besides, average here is way above average in the world at large. It takes experience, influence, and popularity to get traction on an idea.
I'm finding out that the main thing holding me back from my dream job isn't skill or experience. It's fear. I'm afraid that I don't have experience. I'm afraid to fail.
I signed a contract last week for my special training that I'd be doing 3 things by March. One of those is applying for a job that I really want that is offered internally at my company. No matter what the results are, I need to toss my hat in the ring. When I signed that contract I tried to think of every reason in the world I shouldn't go for it. I explained to the mentoring group why it wouldn't work and why I was conflicted about doing it. I was shaking while signing that I would do it. The time for self-defeating internal talk is over. If I'm held back, it shouldn't be by me. No only means no for now. What's the worse that can happen? I hope the worse that can happen is they don't interview me and at least tell me what to work on to be qualified for that position if they don't think I am. The best that can happen is they see my passion, potential, and how fast I'm learning and give me a chance to grow in to that role. The medium thing that could happen (neither great nor terrible) is that they interview me so I can get practice interviewing, and they give me feedback. For me it isn't so much that I have to have the "job right now", it's that I want to get there and know I'm moving towards it. Besides, it's reporting to the one person I most want to work for, and opportunities don't come up that often. I feel like a crazy person to say the truth, which is, "I really want to be on your team. You want me because you don't have anyone who will work harder to make you not just look good, but BE good than I will. I'm willing to do what it takes."
My mentoring group told me that my confidence is the biggest problem, and that I need to spend the next few weeks doing anything I can that makes me feel powerful. It looks like more karaoke, and more Rockband on expert level is going to be upcoming. Also, more cooking and having friends over. I may not always be confident in my professional life, but in my personal life, I am a rockstar and have been basically unstoppable the last several years. I have the best team of loved ones possible, and it makes me feel more "me" than I ever have before.
If I can do one thing at work to make a bigger impact, it would be to be confident, be brave, and still be me.
Your subject line is your best clue: You say Overcoming fear, like it was something to conquer, something to subdue and dominate. So I have to ask then, Who is Fear? and hope that you answer It is me ... and thereby realize what a testy feisty unconquerable foe it might be ,...
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Development is my favourite topic
If I may invite you, not to evangelize, just to inform, since you did say you were into personal development: I have a very humble webpage of Readings">http://www.teledyn.com/fun/CL">Readings in Constructive Living, sometimes known as the quiet therapies. There's some free articles, some technical references and some widely available self-help titles.
The Jazz genius pioneer Sun Ra said we should not love ourselves, because we'd be happy as we are and never seek to change ourselves and we'd think less of other people. He said we should instead hate how we are, and therefore continually seek to be better tomorrow than we are today.
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