Last weekend was our third Discover Your YIPPEE! ® Retreat. A delightful group of men and women gathered to create plans for the next stage of their lives. We left excited about the amazing conversations, insights and commitments they each made to themselves, including 90-day action plans. So in December, we’ll check in and reflect on what’s working, what’s not, what we’ve learned and what we want to do differently.
Those are the same questions I put to myself at the end of every retreat. Each retreat I add new exercises, adjust the sequence and tweak the approach. This last time was no different. After the retreat, I incorporated new thinking and exercises to our material on limiting beliefs. This is an especially important part of discovering your YIPPEE because ALL of us have beliefs about ourselves and what is possible (or permissible) that may no longer apply.
One of the beliefs many achievers have is about perfection. Everything has to be perfect! It’s a belief I’ve struggled with over the years. Yet believing everything has to be perfect can diminish the likelihood of success. Why? Because good ideas need refining. That kind of refining happens when we offer our ideas to the world.
Don’t be afraid to put your ideas out there. Let people respond to them, question them and contribute to them. Once this happens, the ideas become richer and fuller.
Still nervous about it? One way I give myself permission to put out “new stuff” is to call it an experiment. And indeed it is. Experimenting to see if something works helps me (and you) improve. Try it. Engage others – listen, don’t defend, refine and try it again.
You’ll be amazed. As you experiment, you’ll discover lots of things that don’t work – and that’s a good thing. It just gets you closer to what will work better. That’s what I did at this last retreat. I experimented with some new material and discovered a much better way to use it next time. Did I “lose face”, feel foolish, embarrassed or defensive? Not at all. After all, it was an experiment.
What are YOU going to experiment about this week? Let me know.
Until next Tuesday. YIPPEE!
Elizabeth