Tag: self

Assessing Progress, Lifting, and Adjusting Training (5-17-23)

This will be in the last in the series inspired by lifting weights.  This week is about assessing your progress, lifting, and making adjustments to your training.

This past weekend I completed Highlander Assault Dark Ages, a 4-mile obstacle course race that you do at night guided by a headlamp.  One of my favorite parts of racing is that it enables you to assess your performance, and what led to that performance.  You either completed an obstacle or you didn’t.  If you did, was it as easy as you wanted it to be?  If you didn’t, did you lack the strength, technique, or something else?  I had some areas I felt great about.  My legs felt fresh through the entire race.  I felt strong, flipping tires and carrying heavy stuff felt easier than it has in the past.  I also had some good failures.  I still didn’t make it up the rope, but I made it farther than I have before.  I have technique and strength gaps here.  I had a couple monkey bar like obstacles that I failed.  I still don’t have the grip strength I need.  After I reflected on my performance, I looked at my lifting/training plan.  It served me well in some areas, but there are other areas I need to tweak to get even better. 

You might be wondering what this has to do with anything.  In my obstacle course racing story, I completed a race, assessed my wins/losses, and then updated a training plan to make me better for next time.  I’ll execute this updated training plan until my next race, and then start the cycle all over again.  How often do you do this at work?  How often do you pause to honestly assess your performance?  When you do, how much time do you spend reflecting on what got you there?  How often do you create a plan that helps you develop new skills and techniques?    I think we could all do better at this.  I know I could.

The challenge: Are you assessing your progress?  How are you adjusting to become even stronger?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Self-Doubt, Comparison, and Feeling like an Impostor (10-18-21)

Special blog edition.  I want to share some good news I’m proud of and excited about, while also sharing the vulnerability behind it.  Continuing with our theme of things I’ve struggled with, another struggle I have is the combination of self-doubt, comparing myself to others, and feeling like an impostor. 

So the good news…I was invited to be a guest on a podcast!  This was my first ever invitation to be a guest on a show.  The podcast is called Unlocking Your World of Creativity with Mark Stinson (Link to my episode if you want to listen).  Mark interviews people across different industries and talks to them about creativity.  What does it mean to them?  How do they apply it in their lives?   Now here is where the self-doubt creeps in.  When I was first asked to be on the podcast, I was thrilled.  Then, I noticed that other guests were business owners, CEOs, published authors, and people who seemed more successful than me.  Suddenly, I didn’t feel like I belonged anymore.  I told my wife I wasn’t sure if I’d be a great guest for the podcast.

Does my story sound at all familiar to you?  Maybe it’s not a podcast.  Maybe it’s a new role or opportunity.  Have you ever got stuck in the trap of comparing yourself to others and then feeling like an unworthy impostor?  In the case of feeling like a podcast imposter I turned this around by examining the evidence.  Learned this approach from The Inside Job podcast with Dr. Nayla Bahri and Eric Johnson.  I asked a simple and powerful question, “If the podcast is about creativity, what evidence do I have to support that I’m someone who can and should talk about creativity?”

It turns out I have a lot of evidence to suggest I’m an authority on creativity.  Everyone I’ve ever worked with has given me positive feedback on my creativity and how it’s helped me be a successful marketer and market researcher.  I’ve been called a master storyteller/poet by colleagues.  I’ve performed poetry in National competitions AND brought that same creativity to Corporate America in the form of a blog and mic dropping performances.  I’m a Marketer-Poet Unicorn.  Finally, Mark chose me, because of my blogs on LinkedIn.  He would only invite someone he felt was worthy.  All of these are factual statements.  All of this evidence suggests I’m a great candidate to discuss creativity.  After reviewing the evidence I realized I’m definitely not an impostor.  I went on to have an enjoyable conversation that felt very much like me, and I love how it turned out. 

The challenge: How will you use “the evidence” to challenge your feelings of self-doubt and being an impostor?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Podcast episode