A shift in thinking can change the way you approach a challenge. It’s about looking at the mountain ahead of you, not as an obstacle, but the start of a journey. Here’s an example:
I’ve been working with a coach with the goal of doing voiceover work for commercials. It’s fun but it is work, learning how to channel emotions through your reads as opposed to how I used to announce copy on the news.
Recently, I’ve been focusing on those advertisements where you need to make a hard sell. This is a challenge because it goes against my personality as I’m not a very pushy person. But since I want to be a well rounded artist, I need to develop these vocal muscles.
In trying to get things just right, I realized that I started thinking too much of my practice as overcoming a shortcoming. This kind of focus puts a lot of pressure on you and reinforces what you don’t do well.
Instead, I said to myself, “I have a lot of room to grow here.” Immediately, I felt better. Your thinking goes from the negative present to a more positive future. Better yet, instead of stewing in failure, you’re laying out a path to success.
As babies, not figuring out how to walk was never an option. You just kept doing it until it happened. Perhaps as adults, we need to stop defining ourselves by what we can’t do…yet.
