I recently discovered an expert in a subject I'm interested in.
Studying his work has been intense. I'm reading his book, but I don't fully understand it. I understand the articles on his website more than the book, but I have to reread them multiple times to really get the concepts. And then, implementation of the new ideas is still beyond me.
Read MoreMy husband and I used to go to a burger chain that had insanely delicious burgers, really good french fries, and thick milkshakes made with real ice cream.
This burger chain had counter service that was always incredibly slow. The people who worked there seemed to be in a daze.
What's more, the place was always running out of things. And there were often little handwritten signs around that were meant to correct other signs that had been created by the corporate office.
Read MoreWhen my nephew was about three, he interrupted dinner to make a pronouncement.
“All of da gwonups!” he said, emphatically addressing his grandparents, parents, and me. “We have a ploblem!”
The “ploblem” turned out to be that he wanted someone to play cars with, and he didn’t have too much trouble solving it.
Read MoreI didn’t realize the extent to which some kids face pressure to excel until I moved to a major city and began to work with affluent families there.
Though these kids enjoyed certain privileges and choices that I had not had, they were also expected to follow a certain path in life. They were expected to be exceptional students and go to exceptional colleges.
Presumably, to have exceptional lives.
Read MoreWhen I first started my email list for Eclectic Music, I was self-conscious about writing to so many people at once.
I was terrified that I would make a mistake — even a typo — that would cause people to roll their eyes and assume that I didn’t know what I was doing. I worried that I would share an idea that people would think was stupid.
What’s more, I was concerned that I was bothering people every time I sent an email out. I imagined that my relationship with these people was so tenuous and fragile that one false move would crush it. “Now she’s gone too far!” they’d say grimly, deleting the offending missive. “Who does she think she is?”
Read MoreWhen educators and coaches talk about the benefits of failure, we’re not talking about creating a $200 million film that’s a flop at the box office, launching a startup that uses all your life savings and runs up $100K on your credit card, or running for president and losing.
I suppose those failures build character, but those kinds of “place all your eggs in one basket” failures distract from the everyday struggles that really make the difference in our success. These are the failures in which we’re risking our self-concept and ego, as opposed to money and prestige.
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