The post of the month
The joy of adversity!
If we were gifted with everything outright, nothing would taste special. If it were enough to decide to become an actor for success to smile on us immediately, no one would take part in castings any longer. It is often because we know that a career is challenging that we are tempted to embrace it. And yet, at the first hard knock, at the first rejection, we may already be thinking of giving up, because it’s too hard, because nothing is happening as we’d anticipated… when in fact nothing is predictable.
If you choose a way that you know arduous and strewn with obstacles, when the first difficulties show up, embrace them as part of the reason you made that very choice. It is these difficulties that spice up your undertakings and without them, it’s likely you wouldn’t have got started in the first place.
Presenter of the month
The new POTUS
Since we live in a world where Donald Trump is the new president of the greatest economic power in this world, it seems important to remember that the fear of the other is and remains a powerful way of attracting the votes of those who are terrified by this “other”.
But when we look more closely, the “other” is never this monster that we imagine. The “other” isn’t the real danger. The real danger is this resistance inside us that keeps us from achieving our dreams. If most people were on their way to fulfilling their potential, the Trumps of this world would no longer have an audience.
The real monster is inside. It’s the one that ensures we’re seduced by simplistic discourses rather than doing what we need to do to become inspiring teachers, motivating bosses, brilliant chefs, great artists, or amazing parents.
“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” Franklin D. Roosevelt
It happened to them first
In a world of uncertainty
Actors know it, live it and experience it every day: none of them really knows what tomorrow will be made of. That’s the price of the freedom necessary to practise their job. Uncertainty.
For many, uncertainty is unbearable. They then have to pay a price for gaining more certainty, and this price is some of their freedom… or some of their savings.
What is of value, what brings satisfaction is rarely the result of certainty. Learning to live with some uncertainty, being open to the fact that not everything is guaranteed, set in stone, controllable, is one way of reducing stress and enhancing everyday life.
Getting comfortable with uncertainty is a matter of habit. Terrifying to start with, it rapidly becomes a familiar companion.
To practise
Working at it
The more we practise as coaches and trainers, the more surprised we are to see that most people consider the know-how and competence of others, painstakingly gained over years of work and investment, as talents.
Listening to a top guitar player, they might say: “I’d love to have his talent”. Watching a great speaker: “She’s a born presenter”. Observing a mechanic: “He’s a natural with cars”. As if a fairy leant over our cribs at birth to hand out talents and decide what we’ll be able to do – or not – for the rest of our lives.
Such statements are a clue that we’re giving responsibility for success over to external forces like God or our parents or luck…
Conversely, if we’ve worked long and hard to develop our skills and performance, then we can take the credit for any success we achieve – not genes nor luck!
And what else?
Budding genius
When he was still a young man, not yet the genius everyone knows about, Albert Einstein had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. None.
So much for those who thought he was born a physicist! It that had been the case, he’d probably have discovered sooner that this was his area of expertise! As he didn’t know what to do, young Albert spent nearly a year in Pavia, Italy, doing nothing, or nearly nothing. He would attend, whenever he felt like it, this or that lecture, as an unregistered student… With his parents’ help, he was giving himself the time and latitude to discover what delighted, fascinated, and attracted him.
Doing nothing, waiting, dawdling, can open the door that leads to a life’s work and to genius.
Najberg Milne news
Winning Hearts & Minds in Brussels and Paris!
On 9-10 March, Najberg Milne offers another open course in Brussels. After London and Paris, we continue our conquest of the European capital. Feel free to tell your professional and personal contacts!
Les 2 et 3 mai, ce sera le tour de Paris d’ouvrir une session de Captiver & Convaincre. Pensez à vous inscrire rapidement, les places partent vite !
On 2-3 May will take place the next open course in Paris. Don’t forget to book soon, places go fast!
For all information: js.pigeau@najbergmilne.com or f.maurin@najbergmilne.com
The link of the month
When Usain Bolt used to lose…
Watch the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FTW_UCj-vM
Surprised?
That’s right, Usain Bold finishes in fourth place… And yet it’s the same man, the same stride, a few years before his world record, before his exploits, before the Usain Bolt that the whole world now knows.
Before that man, who seems born to win, for whom victory seems so easy, obvious, natural, he was the man you’ve just watched, who used to lose, who used to wonder how to become the best. The man who just had the potential to become a champion.
It’s easy to forget all those moments of doubt and effort, once you stand on the top step of the podium… Yet it is those moments that shape those who succeed.