Very recently I was asked to participate in a project where I have to perform something. I was asked on the basis of my previous performances. And the easiest would of course be to settle on that level, and just make something which would please the runner of the project enough. But this project might be a great oportunity for me. And also for others, that is everyone who will take part of the result, and hopefully get something good out of it for themselves.
So ... Malin gets all philosophical about it ...
The reason for that was that I rather soon after being asked did get this idea for what I would do. But the idea involves a bit of a risk for me, because I will partially enter unknown land. And I might possibly make a big failure. So ... I have spent a few days thinking about it. How shall I go about it? Shall I challenge myself, work kind of in an examining way, and hopefully discover something new and fresh? Something both myself and everyone who will take part of the result will gain from. That is what I wish to do, just also coz my lust is to go down that particular road. I wanna find what is there, have never been there before. So for me that is what is fun. To just make something I have done before does not excite me too much.
But what if I fail? Well, after all this thinking I have come to the conclusion that firstly I don't believe I will fail, and secondly I just have to be prepared that I maybe will. And how would I handle that? What is the worst thing that could happen? I really don't know to be honest, I guess I would either make a fool out of myself, or I would just be withdrawn from the project. The worst thing for me would be if I was still part of the project, but what I did was on an embarrissingly lower level than you could expect, and that in comparission to the others who are participating I would be the one with the absolutely worst result. Like, totally boring and uninteresting. I would get a bad reputation, and no one would ever wanna cooperate with me again. Yes, that would be very bad for me. But to be honest I don't think that is what will happen. I believe I will perform well, that I will please the project runner, that I will develop myself, and that others will benefit from what I have discovered.
So all of this made me think of something I learnt about 10 years ago when I worked in an internet bureau (as an Art Director and Interface Designer). One of the bosses was extremely interested in averything to do with creating a work environment that would get the possibly best out of every one working in the company. Both on a personal level, but also on a team level. I shan't get into many details about that, but I just remeber one lecture I attained. Where it was explained that in order to reach better results, increase your performance, you have to not focus on reaching higher all the time. If you instead focus on allowing yourself on reaching lower on the scale of what is the maximum failure you are willing to accept for yourself, you will automatically reach higher on the performance scale. I don't remeber ALL the details about this theory, and I might have left something important out. So please feel free to fill in any gaps or correct any faults you discover in this post/article in the comments. I have tried to make a graph that explains the theory.
So what is the conclusion then? Will I go for the risky unknown path? Of course I will! I don't think I could ever do anything else. I need challenges and to develop myself. I love to discover new knowledge, and expand my own abilities. That is so much fun. But yes, perhaps I will make a complete fool out of myself. Frankly I don't care in this case. It is so much more worth for me to try this idea I have, I just wanna see how it will work and if I will be able to make something good out of it. If I fail, I will still have learned something. And I don't think I will fail. I think something really good will come out of this yet unknown journey.
PLEASE share your thoughts and experiences on this subject.
All my love,
Malin
