Sometimes a genuine laugh and a little openness can make us feel on the right track once again.
And if that works for us, we can be sure it would do miracle for others as well. When you put kindness and honesty out there, the effects compound, and the return transcends your personal boundaries.
We all seek connection in what we do.
Funnily enough, the real challenge is often to be the first offering it.
Being persuadable is about actively open-minded thinking. That is to say, it is not enough to be open to evidence that goes against our own beliefs. One has to seek that out.
Some good ways to practice that.
If you do that consistently, you gain in accuracy (getting closer to “reality”), agility (overcoming the status quo bias and the sunk cost fallacy), and growth (using feedback to improve).
And, contrary to common belief, you will not give up autonomy and self-determination.
Autonomy doesn’t mean reflexively resisting all external influences. That would be impossible, not to mention foolish. It means taking actions that “are both personally valued and well synthesized with the totality of one’s values and beliefs” regardless of who suggests those actions.
Al Pittampalli, Persuadable
Change does not wipe away what was. It builds on it.
And when we change, it is often so that what we build looks way too similar to what was. After all, it is easier to fall back on what is known than it is to imagine the unknown.
It is ok, as change is an additive process. It is made of layers on top of each others. Some familiar, some peculiar. While you go, you will realize that change is happening, even when it does not seem so.
That is when you start to appreciate the journey and understand that the destination is mere chance.
Your boss who seems so confident is afraid too.
The colleague who has always something relevant to share is anxious too.
That speaker you love for the way they thrill the audience is nervous too.
The successful entrepreneur you are reading about is worried too.
The point is not making fear, anxiety, and the like go away. The point is using them to your advantage. Can fear push you to get out of your comfort zone and see what is out there? Can anxiety help you run through different scenarios and find them not as scary as they initially seemed? Can nervousness be the reason why you practice one more time? Can worry fire up a need to consult different perspective without getting stuck?
Make the most of what you have, even when at first it seems like something you just want to run away from.
You do not have to be a master to mentor. You do not have to be the best at what you do, neither you need to be an expert in what you do. You might have a passion, but that is just a like most of the time. You might feel competent and knowledgeable, but if you are completely honest that’s probably not how you feel in most cases.
If you believe any of the above is necessary to mentor, you are telling yourself a false story, you are giving up to resistance, you are pushing back something you would genuinely benefit from.
To mentor, you merely need to have experience and to be willing to give it away.
And when that is the case, you can start mentoring now. You will get back everything you put in. And more.
You've got this 