Hi guys! Welcome to the 33rd episode of the Wildly Successful Lifestyle podcast!
So we are doing something new next week and I hope you love it as much as I do! We are starting our Wednesday Wisdom interview series with Wildly Successful people from all over the world! I have come up with 10 great questions that we will ask speed round style! We are going to keep these episodes short also because we love getting lots of new information in short spurts, this allows us to get a sneak peek into the lives of people who are already living a wildly successful lifestyle and maybe we pick up some clues to how we can have the same success because as Tony Robbins always says “Success leaves clues”! So be sure to listen next Wednesday when we interview John Roussot from the UK! He’s dynamic and vibrant and lives life to the fullest and I can’t wait for you to hear that first interview.
Now, for this week. Have you ever been wrong about something and then just kept rolling with it because you didn’t want to pivot or admit that you were wrong?
I have been a solopreneur for a while now. Which basically means I run my business alone. It also means I am used to just calling the shots and I can pivot when I want and change or add new things as I see fit. Now, I have recently started working with a team that helps me with branding, marketing, and lots of other fun stuff. This last week, I made kind of a big decision without talking to them because I’m just used to doing that. When I was letting them know that we needed to change some marketing and do a few other things they kind of looked at me like I may have lost my mind. Long story short, the head guy of the team I’m working with basically sat me down and said in a very kind way “Heidi, you have to learn what it means to work with a team. We can’t pivot on a dime and in order to do things appropriately we have to have a little heads up so major decisions that affect everyone need to have some sort of notice so we can prepare and be professional moving forward. I was wrong and he was calling me on it. You know what? I appreciated it and we went back to our original plan which would be better for everyone including me.
At first, I wasn’t crazy about it because let’s face it, who likes being wrong and then being called out on it? It doesn’t feel great. But you know what would feel worse? Hanging on to the wrong idea and having to deal with the fallout of it. I learned something from that experience. I learned that it felt good to be working with a team that insists on high quality products. I learned that having a team that will tell me the truth rather than try to accommodate or appease may be a bit uncomfortable short term but in the long term it’s a huge win.
How about in scenarios where you make a judgment based on someone’s appearance and end up as wrong as the day is right? I am not proud of this next story I’m about to tell you. My husband and I run just about every day in our neighborhood. We are familiar with the norms of our community. We also pride ourselves on being open minded and loving. One beautiful Sunday morning we were stretching in a park down the street about to finish our run when a car that didn’t fit in pulled into the park. The person that got out wasn’t dressed the way we were used to someone dressing for exercise. I felt a little off. Then he crossed over into the median of the neighborhood to stretch instead of the park. Red flags went up but we went about our business of stretching keeping a little bit of an eye on the newcomer. I said to my husband that’s a little weird, don’t you think? He agreed but said let’s just keep on going. We finished our stretching and continued our run back to our house. As we were running, up from behind came the man from the park, he passed us and said a very friendly “hello”. We say hello back. A few minutes later he turns around and is running back and passes us again, this time face to face. He pauses and says “What a beautiful blessed morning to have a run! Aren’t we blessed to be able to be here? He mentioned that he loved to meditate and think of the things he was grateful for and then he wished us a blessed day and kept running. I’ve never felt so wrong about something in my life. I almost started crying because of my misjudgment of him from the start. But you know what? It was a growth moment for me and there’s not a whole lot I love more than learning and growing. I was wrong about him and learned a valuable lesson of not judging a book by its cover. You never know until you give someone a chance to show who they are inside.
I also had a conversation with a friend this week and we were talking about the interesting turn of events with the Coronavirus in America. Somehow we went from us all being in it together to now it’s extremely political. It is a very interesting dynamic. It has so much to do with our thoughts and our beliefs. Most of the time our thoughts and our beliefs are hardwired from when we were growing up. I grew up in a pretty strict religion, I talk about that freely. We had a rule for everything and the community made sure you kept those rules or else…
There are some similarities with what is going on in America right now. Some groups are trying to police other groups. Does that make one group right? Does it make the other group wrong? I don’t think so. I also don’t know, Nobody does. I honestly don’t think anyone knows right now what’s right and what’s wrong. There isn’t enough data for that. Eventually they will figure it out and the next Time we will handle it much better, I feel certain of that.
But for now, when you think someone else is wrong or someone else thinks you are wrong, maybe have an honest conversation with them about why they feel that way. I love this new question a friend and I came up with recently. “Help me understand, I’m so curious because that’s not my view, and I am interested in why it is yours.” It could be that their past is dictating their thoughts and feelings just like mine have been. It may not change your mind but now you can at least understand why they feel that way which makes it so much easier to have a conversation about it. And look. Maybe in cases like this, we just give up on the idea that someone has to be right and someone has to be wrong! Isn’t that a freeing thought?
My final point is that it is not a sign of weakness to admit when you are wrong. Quite the opposite in my opinion, it’s a sign of confidence and strength, showing you are open minded and flexible…two more key ingredients for a Wildly Successful Lifestyle! Love you guys and I will talk to you in a few days!