Every time, I come with a new idea and see potential of its impact, I am excited. Some time passes, and the initial excitement fades and I am struck with fear. My head reels with many questions like what could go wrong, what could I get criticised for and what if I fail in execution? My talent and creativity never see the light of the day because of this. What can I do to shine?
~ Senior Leader, PharmaCreation & Sustenance require two different kinds of mindset & skillset.
Creation comes with curiosity, creativity, connecting the dots and the energy of the mind.
Sustenance comes with courage, conviction, perseverance, endurance and energy of the heart.
The flaws in self-awareness are:
Assumption that we have both when we have only one (distortion)
Assumption that we can't learn what we don't have (fixed mindset)
Assumption that the energy of the mind is sufficient (Energy deficit).
This creates fear & anxiety and we don't reach the finish line.
Daring greatly requires you to see through the assumptions, build a growth mindset and infuse energy of the heart.
Some pointers that could help are:
Show up as the person in the arena
The starting trouble will be over when you show up. However insignificant your idea is or however un-rounded it is, show up. Theodore Roosevelt in his popular speech, "Man in the arena" talks about the greatness of showing up as below:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Note that showing up doesn't mean to succeed always. Showing up means to err, to come short, to strive and to win.
2. Make grit realistic
Angela Duckworth in her book, "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance", talks about 4 qualities that mature paragons of grit have in common. They are
Interest
Practice
Purpose
Hope
And quite interestingly all those are learnable. And more interestingly, it can iteratively get better. What it requires is the discipline to stay put and work through the kinks.
3. Seek support
You don't have to battle alone. Seek support from others. Socialise the idea with your network. Make the idea better with other's inputs. Ask your support group to play devil's advocate. Ask your support group to call out risks. Prepare for mitigation. Stay the course. Battle it out.
What makes you dare greatly?
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