Last week was about hoodies and psychological safety.  This week is about being brave enough to try something new.

One of the fall holidays my girls look forward to every year is Halloween.  I hope yours was spooktacular!  This year, my girls decided that they wanted to be characters from Hollow Knight, a dark and mysterious video game about creepy bug creatures.  While my girls were super excited to be Hollow Knight characters, my wife and I were hesitant.  We normally buy costumes, and there weren’t costumes you could buy.  They don’t exist.  My wife decided to do something she had never done before.  She decided to make them.  Diane did research online, found patterns, bought foamboard, and went to work making the masks.  My girls loved them and the neighborhood kids thought it was so cool that my daughters were Hollow Knight characters.  My girls also felt cool, because they were like part of a small club of people in the know, since most people had never heard of this video game.

What does this have to do with anything?  When it comes down to it, the effort my wife put in made the night for everyone.  She didn’t have to do any of this.  The moment she realized we couldn’t buy costumes, she could have said no and that we will have to be something else.  She could have been too afraid to try something new.  She could have been intimidated by trying to reach perfection, and decided to not even make an attempt.  However, she didn’t let any of this stop her.  She rolled up her sleeves and gave something a try.  She created something awesome that filled our hearts with joy.

How many times do we hesitate when we are asked to do something new?  How often do we get worried about having to be perfect?  How often do we stop because we aren’t sure we can do anything out of our comfort zone?  I know I’ve been hesitant to try something new in the past, and as a result I missed out on opportunities that could have been incredible.

The challenge: Will you lean forward and try something new?

Side note, if you have a PS4 membership, Hollow Knight is the free game this month.  I’d suggest you check it out 😉

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry