Not long ago my son and I were watching a television program called the Voice. For those of you unfamiliar, it’s a show where talented young vocalists are paired up with and Coached by Mega-recording artists with the intent of winning a singing contest. Kind of like American idol but with Coaches which is what really interests me about the show.
In this particular episode Celine Dion was invited on the show to be a “guest coach” for a few of the contestants and she was really taking her job seriously. Usually the “guest coaches” are just there to promote their new albums and look cool, but it was obvious she was really excited to share her knowledge, up moving and singing along around with the young musicians. I really appreciated the passion she had for her craft. She kept stopping them and providing real time feedback on what they were doing and how they could make slight adjustments and improvement to get better results. Something any Coach or leader could take a few notes on.
During the Coaching session, one of her young mentee’s got frustrated that he wasn’t able to get a certain part of the song just the way he wanted. You could see the resignation on his face as he felt dejected at is inability to “get it right.”
It was here that Celine Dion offered up a powerful piece of coaching advice that caused me to write this article. She walked over to her young student, put her hand on his shoulder and simply stated. “Don’t worry about it, this is practice and you don’t have to be great every moment- you just have to be great in the moment.”
I could see that statement really sink in with the young musician and he got right back to work, practicing and learning to be great in the moment.
I work with so many talented individuals that tend to beat themselves up whenever things don’t work out perfectly or as they planned them. They toil and stress over even the most insignificant of items. This quest for perfection leads to untold amounts of stress and aggravation and can tear apart even the most talented of teams.
While it is good to want to improve and make adjustments to get better in your craft, remember that we are all just practicing. The very nature of practice is about making mistakes and learning from them. If we are coaching ourselves and our teams, it’s those mistakes we make in practice that will help us when we really put everything on the line.
In your business and in your life you are not paid for perfection, you are paid and rewarded for results. So the next time you start beating yourself up over not being perfect in each and every situation remember- You don’t have to be great in every moment- just be great in the moment when the moment comes along.
Ask yourself this week:
Where are I’m putting too much pressure on myself to be perfect?
How is that impacting my team or myself?
What are the lessons I’ve learned as a result of practicing and making a few mistakes?
How will I apply them in the moment- when the moment actually comes?
Thoughts for the week:
We are all products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it. – Rick Warren
You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing a falling over. –Richard Branson
How much you can learn when you fail determines how far you will go into achieving your goals. – Roy Bennett
I don’t have the perfect roadmap drawn out, but I do know which roads I’ll never drive down again. – Brittany Burgunder.
Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. –Oscar Wilde
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Be afraid of not learning from them. -Unknown
Looking forward to our next connection
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