In a recent blog, I pointed out the advantage of “Planning your Life in Pencil”. It was to demonstrate there are often unanticipated turns in the road that actually might be beneficial and the value of embracing those opportunities. In thinking about it, I realize that grabbing a pencil first isn’t always the best course of action for all situations.
I have a friend who likes to do crosswords in pencil. I like to tease her that “Pencils are for doubters!” Not to label, but rather to categorize: doubt, hesitation, lacking confidence, anticipating errors and failure instead of success. Generally a first draft is wise and can avoid severe consequences but there are times when hesitation can be costly in itself. There are circumstances that call for successive approximations such as grades in schools. After all, you don’t learn to count to 10 and then jump right to calculus or learn your ABC’s and then commence authoring your first book. I acknowledge there are times when the approximation seems a bit steep, but such is life. I recall diving off the one meter board at our community pool as a kid, but going up to the 3 meter board seemed an increase 10 fold….where’s the 2 meter board? It took a lot more for me to execute that dive…and you might as well forget me even considering a 10 meter platform ! Can someone invent a board that mechanically rises in inches?? There are the times when self doubt causes more pain and anguish as we try to approximate. Ever peel a band-aid off slowly as opposed to ripping it off? I’ve seen a youngster go from two training wheels to one in an effort to approximate and it turned ugly when they attempted a turn to the side with the training device. Yes, there are times we have to just go for it. Do you recall that first time you successfully balanced on a bike? – Indescribable. That was an example of when you used “pen” instead of “pencil”, that moment of push off knowing there weren’t any safety devices. (and of course back then, what helmet???) The use of “the pen” is critical when you can’t afford to be doubtful. A football running back breaking into the opening formed from a lineman’s block is only there for a split second. No time to hesitate with a “pencil”. The Apollo 13 astronauts used both a pencil and a pen. They used pencil to plan their recovery strategy and then had only once chance to fire the retro rockets to correct their course to “slingshot” out of the moon’s gravitational pull to make it home safely. The pencil to adapt, and the pen to “go for it”. Obviously, they knew when to use the right stuff. I’ll tell you this, if I’m having brain surgery, damn well I want that doctor to be comfortable with a “pen”, don’t even consider a “pencil”. In life, business and personal, there are times when throwing off the training wheels will provide that same level of exaltation when we realize we can do something we felt we had to “draft” first. Know when to be decisive (pen), compared to when to take that additional time to gather more information (pencil). When to talk vs. when to listen, when to offer a suggestion vs. when to ask a question. When to walk into the boss’ office as opposed to waiting for the invite. Have confidence in yourself in new areas and test those growth boundaries. Learn by doing, and accept that there might be a few spills and scraped knees along the way. Fortitude is getting back up and getting on the bull again. Now……let’s go do that crossword puzzle..with pen in hand !
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