I recently met with a friend who shares a mutual interest in both coaching and writing. As we conversed about our desire to write, he used my blog theme of Climbing Mountains to ask a question about my goals. “Do you have an idea what the view will look like from the mountaintop with writing?”
I know from past patterns I’m still working through my baggage, and it’s a challenge to put my cards on the table; to expose myself and share with others what my dreams are. Knowing my fears are stupid (real…but stupid) I took a slightly deeper breath and said I want to publish a book. I’d like to develop writing to the point it could become more than simply an outlet for creative expression, but possibly an income stream in my retirement years.
As I drove home after the conversation, I found myself feeling emotions along a broad range. I was inspired and motivated; my mind was churning with ideas. I felt the anxiety that can come with stepping out into the unknown; and then, I was reminded of a hard lesson from my past.
I don’t want to make that mistake in this newest game I’m stepping into.
RELIVING GLORY DAYS…TO MAKE A POINT
When I was in high school, I was an above average basketball player. My junior year I was 1st team all-conference, and my senior year, I was voted to a regional all-star team. Things came easily at this time in my life, but I was unaware of the problem developing beyond my awareness.
I wasn’t being challenged; I had no one guiding me to see a larger picture out ahead of me. Poor fundamentals were being established and reinforced based on my limited experiences and perspectives. Bottom line: I was completely unaware of what my future competition looked like or how they were preparing.
STEPPING UP INTO “AVERAGE”
I earned a scholarship and went off to college. As I became familiar with my new teammates at the college level, I quickly learned many were all-conference, or regional all-stars in high school. I no longer stood out and my prior accomplishments were common among this new set of peers; I had stepped up my game, but soon found out I had stepped up into the place of average. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a plan in place for how I was going to continue growing.
As I was met with the resistance that comes when faced with a far more talented opponent, the old patterns reappeared leading me to accept my new reality that I was just an average ballplayer. Unfortunately, the result of going down this path without any intervention was a very mediocre college experience on the basketball court and nagging thoughts haunting me into my late 20’s…wondering what could have been.
PLAYING A NEW GAME; LIVING WITH NO REGRETS
Today, the challenge is to become a writer. I have no intention of leaving my job as a probation officer, but I do see the importance of cultivating the soil for the things I desire to accomplish out ahead of me.
Posting on this blog site is an outlet for so many of the emotions I feel as I cross paths with people struggling to find their way, but it’s not much of a challenge to open up the program, throw my words on a document, and upload it to this site. Now…earning the interest of people who choose to follow does require I offer something of value…but this kind of writing is very much like my experience in high school.
LEVELING UP
It appears I have quite a few Change Agents following, which I appreciate. We share similar joys as we celebrate people overcoming obstacles and growing. When they win, we can feel a deep sense of satisfaction; when they struggle, we struggle with them.
We’re all on a journey somewhere, even us Change Agents. That said, I wonder if you can relate to my experience of stepping up to a new challenge only to realize the need to critically assess the current game plan. Is your game plan leveling up as you level up? Are you meeting the new challenges that come with stepping up in a manner that insures your growth and development will maintain an upward trajectory?
(By the way, my grandsons would love that I’m using a video game metaphor here!)
I wonder if it’s human nature to get comfortable, to relax and find a groove…to become complacent. To grow, we must continually fight complacency. Out of curiosity, I googled the word “complacent” to see if I could gain any new insight and found this:
“Marked by self-satisfaction especially when accompanied
by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies.”
I suspect that as we level up in pursuit of our dreams, we will find that deficiencies become exposed by the new challenges we face. Like my experience over 40 years ago on the basketball court, I suspect that as I take the steps to up my game as a writer, I will need to anticipate in advance that deficiencies will appear, and the old voices of doubt will no longer be whispering, but will be screaming in my head. Resigning myself to live in a place of “average” like I did with basketball is not an option, but for a different result, a different response is required.
I believe that if we prepare for the obstacles that come with upping our game, we will level up not only in the arena we play in, but in how we prepare for these new challenges. Prepare to step up, but don’t prepare to step into average.
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