Leave Your Ego At The Door And LEVEL UP!

April 30, 2021
nealhooper40

Today we let go and play, and chat about the relation between leaving your comfort zone and how that impacts your growth! You’ll even get to see me being bad at pickleball if you’re watching this on YouTube! Buckle up and said adios to the comfort zone because here we go!

YOUTUBE CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJCE2mr6QBhXUgeoQx4HnzA 

This Week’s PRO TIP is: Promote safe failure and learning by lowering the stakes of failure with those around you.

Come join the conversation and play with us!

WEBSITE https://www.playtheory.org 

Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/playtheory/

Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1652343491608927/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/playtheory4life/ 

Remember that Life is a team sport, so let's play together!

LINKS From Show

TRANSCRIPT

In order to progress as humans, we must learn and develop skills. It’s a part of this whole journey we are on. When we were born, we knew nothing, we had no skills, and were entirely dependant on our parents. We had to learn to crawl, walk, and run and eventually do taxes, pay bills, fight parking tickets, do the laundry, wash the dishes, mow the lawn...Anyway! Growth and learning is a huge part of life. But we’ll only experience it if we are leaving our comfort zone and trying new things.

I made so many mistakes! But I committed to leaving my ego at the door and learning the sport. If you haven’t played pickle ball before, there are a lot of things going on...I mentioned a lot of the rules in a previous episode last year but playing myself and having to navigate the turns, the positions for each set which switch frequently, the number of bounces, the lines, and don’t even get me started on the kitchen. There is a lot of stuff going on!

Thankfully as I began, I had a very patient and skilled coach, the one and only LaRee Florence who is actually a FOUNDER of PLAY THEORY and produces the Happiness Playbook podcast. 

As I swung and missed, swung and hit too hard, swung and hit too soft, I began getting the hang of the rules, the right amount of pressure, and really enjoyed myself.

I learned how to juggle when I was a kid 

But after several days of diligent practice, I got the hang of it. It’s worth noting here that the more we lower the stakes, stay present with the task, and learn to enjoy the process, we will begin finding ourselves more open to letting go and playing.

Another key takeaway here is that leaving our comfort zone in the name of growth and learning and development is SO much easier when we have supportive people who are great at creating environments that promote that safe space for failure and learning to occur. This was my hot take right after playing pickle ball

Our pro tip for the week is to promote safe failure and learning by lowering the stakes of failure with those around you. You may not realize how critical or harsh you are being to loved ones even engaging in conversation. Lower the stakes by giving permission for fail;ure to happen. LaRee was great at this when teaching me pickle ball, she said, you’re going to mess up the serve and that’s ok, just imagine you’re trying to hit several balls in a row...how can you lower the stakes and create an environment that is conducive to learning, growth, and risk taking?

We must take risks in this life. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. While it’s nice to have supportive people around creating a safe environment to take risks, you won’t always have that. This is a muscle that must be developed, and it SHOULD be developed. The only way to growth, productivity and ultimately happiness, is to let go and play, and fail forward to a better tomorrow.

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